The prosecutors who successfully got a jury to convict former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez earlier this year accidentally gave jurors access to some evidence that was meant to be redacted, according to an unexpected legal filing submitted to the court yesterday.
In the filing, which was first reported yesterday by Politico, prosecutors from the Southern District of New York say that laptops provided to jurors contained alternate versions of exhibits which included evidence that had been ordered to be excluded from the jury’s deliberations.
“The jury laptop was inadvertently loaded with alternative versions that contained the redactions the Government sought in its motion for reconsideration of that ruling (which the Court denied), not the versions that contained broader redactions pursuant to the May 24 Ruling,” the 11-page filing says.
According to the prosecutors, however, the error did not lead to any substantive change in the nature of the case against Menendez, and jurors may not have even noticed the unredacted information amid the reams of evidence they were presented with.
“No action need be taken in light of the error, because, among other reasons, any objection was waived by defense counsel’s inspection of the exhibits that were provided to the jury; the Government never referred to or displayed to the jury any incorrect versions of the exhibits; there is no reasonable likelihood any juror ever saw any of the erroneously less-redacted versions; and, in any event, those versions, which do not reference any legislative act and which were of secondary relevance and cumulative with abundant properly admitted evidence, could not have prejudiced the defendants even if they were ever seen,” the filing states.
But Menendez, who was convicted on all charges in July and resigned from his Senate seat a month later, said in a statement that the prosecutors’ admission is a bigger problem than they’ve let on.
“In a letter they filed today, the prosecutors basically admitted that they manipulated the evidence that was given to the jury,” Menendez said. “The prosecutors gave the jury documents that were misleading and ruled inadmissible by the judge, and they did so by electronically burying the tainted documents on a prosecution-team laptop that was then handed to the jury.”
“What else have the prosecutors done to deceive and manipulate the jury? What consequences will they face for their misconduct?” he continued. “Whatever happens next, I very much doubt these prosecutors are telling us the whole story.”
This story was updated at 10:48 p.m. with further comment from Menendez.