DAY THIRTEEN
While Bob Menendez was standing trial on federal corruption charges, his son won the Democratic primary for a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives by a nineteen-point margin.
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The FBI surveilled a dinner between Menendez, his wife, and three Egyptian men, and Nadine Menendez asked them what the senator could do for them.
DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 256
DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,392
MISSED VOTES: 19
Menendez missed votes to approve President Biden’s nomination of two federal judges.
And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 Years and 34 Days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.
The 2019 SURVEILLANCE VAN
— Jurors at Menendez corruption trial hear about a boozy dinner and an unusual offer from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo: “The night Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine met three Egyptian men at a ritzy steakhouse in Washington, D.C., Terrie Williams-Thompson was sitting nearby, straining to hear. The dinner companions were talking ‘low,’ barely above a whisper, said Williams-Thompson, an undercover FBI investigator spying on them. But the conversation grew louder as the wine flowed, and before long, Williams-Thompson heard one thing clearly. ‘What else can the love of my life do for you?’ Nadine Menendez said… That proclamation was, in one way, the most damning of the day — federal prosecutor Lara Pomerantz‘s questioning of Williams-Thompson suggested it was a bald offer to foreign officials on behalf of Menendez … But Williams-Thompson told jurors she otherwise couldn’t hear what the men were talking about. And neither Williams-Thompson nor FBI special agent Chase Hunter Mills, who was secretly surveilling the gathering from a van parked on the street, knew the identities of the Menendezes’ guests during that May 21, 2019, dinner.”
FBI AGENT LIKES A GOOD FREE STEAK
—FBI investigator gives jury at Sen. Bob Menendez’s trial an inside account of surveillance from Associated Press’ Larry Neumeister: “On cross-examination, a lawyer for Menendez attacked Williams-Thompson’s credibility on recalling the quote, noting that she did not document it anywhere immediately in writing, though she said she was sure she notified someone on her team. Williams-Thompson said that aside from laughter, it was all she heard from her that night. Asked by assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz if she told anyone at the restaurant that she was with the FBI, she responded: ‘No ma’am. Because we don’t want that to get out there at all. … Don’t want to blow our cover.” Asked if she ate while she was there, Williams-Thompson said: ‘I sure did. And it was good, too!’ The remark touched off laughter in the courtroom. ‘That is part of blending in,” the witness said. “’You eat? I’m gonna eat.’”
MENENDEZ DIDN’T ACCESS SAFE DEPOSIT BOX
— Senator Menendez Enjoyed a Steakhouse Dinner, as the F.B.I. Watched from New York Times’ Benjamin Weiser and Maria Cramer: “Prosecutors also presented testimony Tuesday from Anna Frenzilli, an F.B.I. special agent who had executed a court-authorized search of a safe deposit box belonging to Ms. Menendez at a New Jersey bank. Inside the box, she testified, agents found 10 envelopes — some with ‘Nadine’ written on them — containing nearly $80,000 in cash and expired passports for her and her two children. During a cross-examination of Agent Frenzilli, one of Mr. Menendez’s lawyers, Avi Weitzman, seized on her testimony in an apparent attempt to distance the senator from his wife’s financial dealings, a central aspect of Mr. Menendez’s defense strategy … Mr. Weitzman noted that the bank’s log book showed that only Ms. Menendez had ever opened the box. He asked Agent Frenzilli if she had ever seen the senator’s name on any of the envelopes or found any passports belonging to Mr. Menendez in the box. No, the agent replied.”
THE NEED FOR A NEW CAR LED TO OFFICE BLOCK BALLOTS
— Nadine Arslanian Menendez’s insurance claim for totaled Mercedes enters corruption trial from the Bergen Record’s Katie Sobko: “The insurance claim for Nadine Arslanian Menendez’s totaled car from December 2018 will be admissible in the federal corruption trial of New Jersey’s Sen. Bob Menendez — but photos and information about how she damaged her car will not. Arslanian Menendez hit and killed a pedestrian named Richard Koop. The strike damaged a Mercedes-Benz sedan she had been driving. As Tuesday’s court session came to a close in lower Manhattan, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein discussed objections that had been filed for evidence still to come during the trial. Among the documents was the insurance claim filed by Arslanian that led her need a new car.”
* Menendez corruption trial is higher thanks to this 2016 Supreme Court ruling
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