DAY FOURTEEN
Prosecutors focused on businessman Jose Uribe, once a co-defendant and now a cooperating witness in the federal corruption trial of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. Uribe was allegedly involved in a complex bribery scheme that included a new Mercedes for the senator’s wife, Nadine. After she texted her husband that “the car his home,” Menendez texted back: “Woopy.”
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal will testify on Thursday about calls Menendez allegedly made to him to seek preferential treatment for a friend.
DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 257
DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,393
MISSED VOTES: 22
Menendez missed three votes on Wednesday, including one to confirm an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 Years and 35 Days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.
MENENDEZ. NADINE MENENDEZ
— Prosecutors Use Texts to Depict Menendez and His Wife as Collaborators from New York Times’ Tracey Tully and Benjamin Weiser: “In January 2019, Senator Robert Menendez placed a seven-minute call to New Jersey’s attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, in what prosecutors say was an effort to quash an insurance fraud case. A New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe, had been desperate to make the fraud charges disappear, prosecutors say. He had turned to Nadine Menendez — who married the senator the next year — for help. In the hours and days before the senator’s call, there was a flurry of communication between Ms. Menendez, Mr. Uribe and a second businessman who is charged with the senator and his wife in an elaborate bribery scheme. Ms. Menendez would often contact the senator soon after texting with the men, sometimes using an alternate phone that the couple referred to as her ‘007’ phone.”
MAYBE PROSECUTORS WILL ASK GREWAL ABOUT THE STATUS OF HIS EDISON RACIST FLYER INVESTIGATION?
— A luxury car for bullying the A.G.? Menendez jurors hear about a deal to ‘kill all investigation’ from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana Filippo: “Prosecutors spent the day explaining failed insurance broker Jose Uribe’s role in what they call a many-tentacled bribery scheme, laying the foundation for former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to testify Thursday. Prosecutors say Menendez, New Jersey’s senior senator, called and met with Grewal several times in 2019 in a bid to stop a state insurance fraud investigation and prosecution into Uribe’s friends. In exchange, Uribe hosted a July 2018 fundraiser for the senator in Cliffside Park and spent tens of thousands of dollars on a new Mercedes-Benz convertible for the senator’s wife, Nadine … ‘The deal is to kill and stop all investigation,’ Uribe texted his friend Wael Hana, who prosecutors said connected him with the couple. The senator’s alleged attempt to strong-arm Grewal didn’t work — trucking company owner Elvis Parra, who was scheduled to stand trial in April 2019 for bilking nearly $389,000 from an insurance carrier, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and got sentenced to probation.”
FBI AGENT DIGS THE GRAVES
— FBI agent testifies at Menendez trial about texts that allegedly show how senator’s wife got a Mercedes from CNN’s Sabrina Souza: “FBI special agent Rachel Graves combed through countless text messages and documents from 2018 and 2019 detailing Jose Uribe’s involvement in the bribery scheme. Uribe was indicted alongside Menendez but struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors earlier this year. Under the terms of the deal, he pleaded guilty to seven counts and agreed to testify in the government’s case … Prosecutor Paul Michael Monteleoni spent Wednesday morning in federal court in New York unraveling the complex web of communication that allegedly led to Nadine Menendez’s ownership of a Mercedes-Benz C300 convertible car. In April 2018, Uribe texted Hana that ‘the deal is to kill and stop all investigation I am talking to Andy and he is falling asleep,’ referring to the investigation into Parra and to Andy Aslanian, a New Jersey attorney and associate of Nadine Menendez who was present at meetings with the senator, Hana and Egyptian officials. By October 2018, however, Uribe appeared to have grown worried over his involvement, texting Hana, ‘I am f**ked man’ and ‘the whole thing is going bad. I have no face to talk to my family.’