Robert Menendez, a powerful Cuban-born senator who “put his power up for sale,” was accused in opening arguments in the trial of bribery, fraud, extortion and being a foreign agent in exchange for the governments of Egypt and Qatar. of money.
“He's powerful and he's also corrupt,” prosecutor Laura Pomerantz told the 12-member jury and six alternates that will seal his fate at the end of the seven-week trial, which includes businessmen Val Hanna and Fred Dieps.
The trial of his wife, Nadine Menendez, who is also accused in the same case, has been postponed until July due to health issues.
The 70-year-old senator, one of the heavyweights of the Democratic Party, used his power and influence to “protect and enrich” two businessmen and helped a third, Jose Uribe – who declared himself. Guilty – and benefit to Egypt between 2018 and 2020.
Money and gold bulls
It hired Nadine Menendez, whose real name is Arslanian, in exchange for cash, gold bars, a mortgage payment on the senator's wife's home, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and other valuables.
Police found $480,000 hidden in a safe in the New Jersey home of the senator and his wife, in envelopes among clothes and shoes and 13 gold bars.
According to the lawsuit, Menendez provided the Egyptian with “sensitive information” from the U.S. government and “secretly” assisted him, particularly in the military and intelligence sectors.
Menendez allegedly helped Teibes invest in a fund linked to Qatar. The senator allegedly introduced him to a member of the Qatari royal family who was the director of an unidentified investment firm in the Middle Eastern country.
This would have helped Hana retain the Egyptian government's monopoly on the import of 'halal' meat, the Muslim slaughter of animals, despite opposition from the US Department of Agriculture.
Likewise, the prosecution alleges that he used his influence in the New Jersey attorney's office to stop the prosecution of Uribe and his associates.
In March, the prosecutor's office in Manhattan's Southern District Court charged him with obstruction of justice when he was questioned about the bribes he received.
– “His greed first” –
“He put his greed first, he put his own interest before the interest of the people (he served), he put his power up for sale,” the lawyer said.
“This is not politics as usual, it is politics for profit,” he said.
Menendez has been charged with bribery, fraud, extortion and acting as a foreign agent. Penalties for the most serious charges can be increased to 20 years in prison.
In turn, Senator Avi Weitzman's lawyer sought to separate the job of the then-chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he resigned from, with the businesses of his Lebanese-born wife, whom he met in 2018. She went home after two years.
Financial concerns
“The actress had financial concerns,” the attorney admitted, but she hid them from the senator. He turns to family and friends, including three businessmen, to overcome them.
“He made sure Bob wasn't in these conversations,” the defense said.
A senator since 2006 and previously a member of the House of Representatives for 14 years, Menendez has been a staunch Democrat in Congress for three decades.
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was a staunch opponent of normalizing relations with Cuba, an ardent opponent of Venezuela and China, and a defender of Israel.
This is the second time Menendez has served time for corruption. In 2015, he was accused of accepting more than $750,000 in private jets, luxury vacations and illegal campaign donations. But after three years the case was dropped after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The Justice Department gave up trying him again.
