Prosecutors in Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial rest; Judge rejects defense motion for acquittal

NEW YORK (AP) – Prosecutors in the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez stayed the case Friday after presenting evidence for seven weeks, allowing lawyers for the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support their claims that no crime was committed. no crime and no bribes were paid.

On the final day of direct examination, prosecutors obtained details about the senator’s financial records by questioning an FBI accountant. Judge Sidney H. Stein then dismissed jurors for the weekend. Defense attorneys are scheduled to begin presenting their case Monday in federal court in Manhattan.

Later Friday, Stein rejected motions by lawyers for all three defendants to acquit their clients on the grounds that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence for the jury to reach a verdict. The motions are a routine part of hearings after prosecutors have rested.

Prosecutors say the gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash found during a search of Menendez’s home two years ago were bribes paid by the three businessmen between 2018 and 2022 in exchange for favors the senator, using his political power, performed on their behalf.

Defense attorneys say the gold belonged to his wife and Menendez had a habit of keeping the cash at home after his family lost almost everything in Cuba before moving to New York, where Menendez was born.

“The government has failed to prove its case,” the senator noted as he left the courthouse on Friday afternoon.

Menendez, 70, is on trial along with two businessmen after a third pleaded guilty as part of a cooperation agreement with the government and testified at trial. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, is also a defendant in the case, which came to light last fall. Her trial was postponed as she recovers from breast cancer surgery. All defendants pleaded not guilty.

Menendez’s lawyers plan to spend up to three days presenting testimony from several witnesses to support their claim that Nadine Menendez, who was Nadine Arslanian when she began dating the senator in early 2018, kept him in the dark about her financial problems. The couple married in the fall of 2020.

The defense also plans to offer testimony that Arslanian was in close contact with the senator at the height of the alleged conspiracy in late 2018 and early 2019 because she was being harassed by an ex-boyfriend.

Stein said Thursday that defense lawyers could obtain testimony contrary to evidence presented by prosecutors that could otherwise be interpreted as suggesting that Arslanian and the senator appeared to be keeping a close eye on each other’s whereabouts because they were involved in the alleged conspiracy.

But he said he would not allow the jury to hear testimony that she had undergone hospital treatment for an abusive relationship with an ex-boyfriend. He said Friday that a witness also cannot testify about specific acts of stalking or harassment.

“This is not going to be ‘Days of Our Lives’ or some soap opera,” the judge warned lawyers Thursday.

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