DAY FIVE
After eating breakfast at George’s Diner in Lower Manhattan, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez traveled about two miles to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse to begin the fifth day of his federal corruption trial. The FBI agent who executed the search warrant at his Englewood Cliffs home almost two years ago said he misspoke about the location of Menendez’s suit jacket – something the three-term former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later touted as a significant victory.
Inner City Press’ Matthew Russell Lee summed up Day Five this way: “Today, mostly beef liver, but the gold bars will return.”
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: A former Cairo-based U.S. diplomat testified that the Halal meat deal Bob Menendez allegedly cut with the New Jersey man who bribed or gifted him caused a container of beef to go up about 1200%.
DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 238
DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,374
DAYS UNTIL THE NEW JERSEY FILING DEADLINE: 18
Menendez is not running in the June Democratic primary but has not ruled out running as an independent if he’s acquitted.
MISSED VOTES: 9
The Senate had no recorded votes today.
And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 Years and 16 Days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.
IS IT TOO SOON FOR A LORENA BOBBITT JOKE?
— Bob ‘Gold Bars’ Menendez’s gall: Blaming his wife in federal corruption trial from the New York Post Editorial Board: “Sen. Bob Menendez stands accused of many things — but “Husband of the Year” isn’t one of them. His main defense in his latest federal corruption trial is that his wife did it. At least, she took all the bribes, he claims — which doesn’t explain why he provided all the pro quos if she was pocketing the quid. His lawyers say Nadine Menendez ‘sidelined’ her hubby, and “withheld information” to make him believe nothing illegal was happening; that he didn’t know she was stashing gold bars in their home…. But now they face separate trials (hers comes later, as she’s being treated for breast cancer.”
ADMITTEDLY HADN’T THOUGHT OF THAT
— Witness at Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial says meat-export monopoly made costs soar from Associated Press’ Larry Neimeister: “ A witness at Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial testified Friday that the cost of certifying that meat sent to Egypt followed Islamic dietary requirements skyrocketed after a single U.S. company was given a monopoly in a cozy deal prosecutors say the Democrat arranged in return for bribes … the cost of certifying a container the size of an 18-wheel truck carrying 23 tons of meat rose dramatically from between $200 and $400 a container to more than $5,000 for the same service after Hana’s company gained its monopoly.”
ARISTOTELIS JOHN KOUGEMITROS IS ON THE HOOK
— Small victory for defense in Menendez trial as FBI agent concedes he misspoke from Gothamist’s Nancy Solomon: “Sen. Robert Menendez scored a small win at his federal corruption trial on Friday when the FBI agent in charge of searching the Menendez home acknowledged that he was wrong when he testified that the senator’s suit jacket was hanging in a closet where cash and gold bars were found. The jacket, he said, was actually hanging on the back of the door in the bedroom, just inches from the closet in question The jacket’s whereabouts are central to Menendez’s defense because the senator’s lawyers plan to argue that Menendez didn’t use his wife’s closet, or know what was stored inside it.”
THIS IS MORE ASTUTE THAN BERGEN RECORD LEGAL ANALYST MIKE KELLY
— MSNBC Legal Analyst Says Blaming Bob Menendez’s Wife Could Be Good For His Defense from the Daily Caller’s Harold Hutchison: “Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Friday that Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey may have a good defense by blaming his wife, Nadine, for the gifts he allegedly received … ‘Once the cases were severed, you know, there’s a preference in the law for codefendants to be tried together jointly in one trial,’ Kirschner said. ‘That’s true for lots of reasons. Once his wife’s case was severed out, and she’s going to be tried separately in the future, it gives Menendez what I refer to as the empty chair defense. His attorneys will figuratively be pointing to the empty chair where his codefendant, his wife, should be seated if they were being tried jointly, and say ‘she’s the bad person, she’s the guilty one. She did it all and he didn’t know anything about it.’”
THE 2024 RESURGENCE OF HENNY YOUNGMAN
— Take My Wife, Please: For Political Damage Control, Just Blame Your Spouse from the New York Times;’ Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Reid Epstein: “It is a tale as old as Adam and Eve: A husband, faced with accusations of misconduct, blames the wife. It is also a time-honored, bipartisan political strategy. This week, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey pointed ringed fingers at their wives for episodes that have landed each man in political or legal trouble.”
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* First full week of Sen. Menendez’s federal corruption trial comes to a close