Bob Menendez claims he did not testify because the prosecution failed to prove the bribery charge against him.

NEW YORK (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez said he will not testify Wednesday at his New York trial because he believes prosecutors have not proven “every aspect” of the bribery case against him, a decision that cleared the way for closing arguments as early as Monday.

Democratic lawyers settled their case after calling several witnesses over two days to rebut seven weeks of testimony and hundreds of exhibits and communications presented by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Menendez, 70, has maintained his innocence to charges that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and cash between 2018 and 2022 in exchange for using his influence in the Senate to do favors for three New Jersey businessmen.

Judge Sidney H. Stein asked Menendez to stand to acknowledge that the decision not to testify was his alone. Menendez said that after lengthy discussions with his attorneys, he decided not to testify.

As he left the courthouse, Menendez told reporters: “In my opinion, the government has not proven all aspects of its case.”

He said “giving them another chance” by testifying as witnesses “just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“I expect my attorneys to present a strong and compelling summary, to conclude how the evidence stood and where it fell short across the board, and how the jury will reach a not-guilty verdict,” Menendez said before wishing reporters who followed him to his car a “Happy Fourth of July.”

Two of the businessmen from whom he is accused of accepting bribes — Fred Daibes and Wael Hana — are on trial with him. A third, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty and testified against the three during the trial.

Daibes and Hana also pleaded not guilty and were given the opportunity to present a defense, although the judge told jurors that the burden was on the prosecutors and a defense was not required. Daibes’ attorneys rested at the same time as Menendez, not presenting a defense. Hana’s attorneys began presenting their case, calling one of Hana’s employees as a witness.

Prosecutors took seven weeks to present their case before resting last Friday. They presented evidence to show that Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, was the go-between for most of the senator’s connections with businessmen.

Nadine Menendez, 57, who began dating the senator in 2018, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, but her trial has been postponed while she recovers from breast surgery.

Bob Menendez’s lawyers argued that his wife hid her financial problems from him, including her inability to pay the mortgage on her Englewood Cliffs, N.J., home, and many of her dealings with businessmen. They also said she inherited gold found in her bedroom during an FBI raid on their home in 2022.

An FBI agent testified earlier in the trial that he ordered the seizure of more than $486,000 in cash and more than $100,000 in gold bars during the raid because he suspected a crime might have been committed.

Among the witnesses called by Menendez’s lawyers was his sister, Caridad Gonzalez, 80, who told jurors that her family members routinely kept large amounts of cash in their home after Menendez’s parents fled Cuba in 1951 with only the money stashed in a secret compartment of a grandfather clock.

“It’s normal. It’s a Cuban thing,” she said.

Bob Menendez was born after the family arrived in Manhattan.

Menendez has pleaded not guilty to bribery, fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. After the charges were announced in September, he was forced to leave his influential position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He has rejected calls to resign from the Senate and filed paperwork last month to seek re-election as an independent candidate.

Prosecutors say Daibes provided Menendez and his wife with gold bars and cash to obtain the senator’s help in completing a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, prompting Menendez to take actions favorable to the Qatari government.

They also claim that Menendez did favorable things for Egyptian officials in exchange for bribes from Hana, a move that allowed the businessman to secure a valuable deal with the Egyptian government, under which imported meat would be certified as meeting Islamic dietary requirements.

A previous criminal case against Menendez on corruption charges based on unrelated charges ended in a stalemate in 2017.

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The article clarified that Menendez is accused of accepting, not giving, bribes.

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