The federal government is completely falling apart. The Swamp’s crimes are finally be seen and put to the test.
And this US Senator is sweating bullets after being put on criminal trial.
Sen. Bob Menendez’s latest corruption trial began Monday with jury selection, as the New Jersey pol faces claims that he accepted bribes including gold bars and a Mercedes convertible.
This marks the Garden State Democrat’s second federal criminal trial.
He was tried for more corruption and bribery accusations in 2017, but the jury deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial.
Menendez, 70, was accused in the most recent case alongside his wife Nadine and three businessmen in a broad 18-count indictment detailing an alleged plan in which the Menendezes accepted payments from 2018 to 2022.
Prosecutors allege that in exchange, the besieged senator provided political favors to the Egyptian and Qatari governments, as well as co-defendants Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, and Jose Uribe.
Hana and Daibes will be tried alongside Menendez, while Nadine’s trial has been postponed until July due to health considerations.
Uribe accepted a plea deal, is collaborating with the FBI, and is likely to testify.
Menendez’s attorneys have stated that if the politician testifies, they may argue that Nadine was to fault because she allegedly “withheld information” from her husband, causing him to assume nothing improper was going on.
The scandal-plagued senator has also been at odds with prosecutors over whether he should be allowed to call an expert psychiatrist to testify that he developed the habit of stockpiling wads of cash at his home as a result of earlier traumas, rather than receiving bribes.
Jurors will most certainly hear how the government took at least 13 gold bars worth $150,000, $486,461 in cash, and a 2019 black Mercedes-Benz C-Class from the Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home during the four to six-week-long trial.
According to the feds, the couple reportedly received expensive items as bribes, including an exercise equipment, an air purifier, home mortgage payments, and money for a “low- or no-show job” for Nadine.
Menendez, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, allegedly engaged as a foreign agent for Qatar and Egypt, including handing over secret US government material to the Egyptian government.
Following his indictment, he resigned as chairman of the committee.
Menendez has emphatically disputed the claims. Nadine, Daibes, and Wael have each pled not guilty.
In a prior bribery case, Menendez allegedly accepted gifts like all-expense-paid vacations and private flights from a medical pal in exchange for using his office to assist the physician secure visas for his young lovers and battle Medicare over a $8.9 million billing dispute.
Menendez has refused to resign from office. He has stated that he will not compete for re-election as a Democrat again but may do so as an independent.
His chances of getting back in office are slim. Probably about as slim as him actually getting imprisoned for his crimes.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
