Menendez will not testify in bribery trial

NEW YORK — 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, maintains he is innocent of 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 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: “From my perspective, the government has not proven all aspects of its case.”

He said “giving them another chance” through witness statements “just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“I expect my attorneys to present a strong and persuasive summary, to conclude how the evidence stood and where it failed across the board, and how the jury will reach a verdict of not guilty,” 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 entered pleas of not guilty and were given the opportunity to present a defense, although the judge told jurors that the burden of proof was on the prosecutors and a defense was not required. Daibes’ attorneys rested at the same time as Menendez, presenting no 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.