U.S. Senator Robert Menendez is trailed by reporters after departing the Senate Democratic Caucus, following his arraignment on corruption prices, on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 28, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
A federal choose on Monday scheduled the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his spouse Nadine on bribery and corruption prices to start May 6, 2024.
The couple is charged with taking “tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} of bribes” in alternate for official acts taken by Menendez on behalf of three New Jersey enterprise associates.
“Those bribes included money, gold, funds towards a house mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job [for Nadine], a luxurious automobile, and different issues of worth,” the federal indictment alleges.
Menendez, his spouse and the trio of businessmen will stand trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The couple is charged with three counts every: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit sincere companies fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion beneath coloration of official proper. The three different defendants are charged with the primary two of these counts.
Menendez insists he’s innocent and has refused calls by greater than half the Democratic Senate caucus that he resign. He has accused prosecutors of twisting “the traditional work of a congressional workplace,” and claims the allegations are an assault on his spouse “for the longstanding friendships she had.”
The indictment alleges that Menendez for years used his place as chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to learn the three enterprise associates. It additionally alleges that the senator “supplied delicate U.S. authorities info and took different steps that secretly aided the federal government of Egypt” in alternate for bribes.
Prosecutors mentioned in courtroom Monday that the case concerned categorized info, and the method of appointing a categorized info safety officer was underway.
They additionally revealed that their case would rely partially on the contents of fifty digital units, telephones, tablets and computer systems, all of which had been obtained by means of warrants.
A June 2022 FBI raid of Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, dwelling resulted within the seizure of $480,000 in money. Prosecutors mentioned they discovered among the cash stuffed into coat pockets, and a few nonetheless in envelopes that had been later discovered to have the businessmen’s fingerprints nonetheless on them.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks throughout a press convention after saying Sen. Robert Menendez was indicted on corruption prices on the SDNY workplace in New York City on Sept. 22, 2023.
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