Platkin says Menendez was ‘unsuccessful’ in attempts to pressure AG’s office

Former Senator Bob Menendez’s yearslong bribery and corruption scheme, for which he was convicted on all charges in July, involved a wide array of government agencies and politicians – but his attempts to interfere in the office of the New Jersey Attorney General were “ultimately unsuccessful,” Attorney General Matt Platkin said today.

When the indictment against Menendez was first unsealed in September 2023, Platkin launched an independent internal inquiry into the allegations that, in 2019, Menendez had tried to influence then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal regarding a criminal case that was pending at the time. (Platkin himself would not become attorney general until several years after the incident occurred.)

“That inquiry has found no misconduct on the part of any past or present member of the Office,” Platkin said today, sixteen months later. “Despite Mr. Menendez’s attempts to interfere with criminal matters handled by this Office, he was ultimately unsuccessful.” Platkin did not share any information from the inquiry beyond his statement on its findings.

During Menendez’s corruption trial last summer, Grewal was one of the prosecution’s key witnesses. He testified that Menendez had spoken with him multiple times about a particular criminal case, saying that the senator implied he wanted the case to be handled “differently”; it was later revealed that the defendant was a trucking company owner with ties to Jose Uribe, one of the three businessmen charged with bribing Menendez.

Grewal said that he cut off the conversations with Menendez when it became clear that the senator was looking to discuss a specific case, and that he did not alter his approach to the case because of Menendez’s meddling. The defendant in question eventually pleaded guilty. 

In one of the case’s most iconic lines, Grewal recalled a conversation with Andrew Bruck, a top deputy at the time and later the acting attorney general, after the two had met with Menendez: “Andrew said to me, ‘Whoa, that was gross,’” Grewal said.

In his statement today, Platkin praised both Grewal and Bruck by name, saying that they had conducted themselves well.

“I want to commend former Attorneys General Gurbir Grewal and Andrew Bruck for their many years of selfless service to the people of this State,” Platkin said. “They were – and are – exemplary public servants.”