DAY THIRTY

Ending a five-hour summation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni told jurors to hold U.S. Senator Bob Menendez accountable for “corruption on a massive scale” and slamming him for blaming his wife, Nadine, for alleged crimes he knowingly committed. But defense attorney Adam Fee continued to insist that the government has failed to prove its case.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Menendez’s attorney is about midway through his five-hour summation, which will resume tomorrow morning. That will be followed by closings from attorneys for co-defendants Fred Daibes and Wael Hanna, and a rebuttal from prosecutors. After the judge gives jurors their instructions, deliberations could begin on Thursday.

DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 290

DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,425

MISSED VOTES: 39
Menendez missed a vote to confirm one of President Biden’s nominees to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

To refresh your recollection: in Bob Menendez’s 2017 corruption trial, the jury deliberated for four days before declaring themselves a hung jury. Ten of the twelve jurors (83%) thought Menendez was innocent. The judge declared a mistrial, the Justice Department dropped the charges, and Menendez was re-elected by eleven points against an opponent who put nearly $40 million of his own money into the race.

And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 years and 67 days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.

CAN’T DO BETTER THAN “TOWERING JENGA STACK OF STAFF”
— Sen. Menendez’s attorneys urge jury to reject ‘cherry-picked nonsense’ from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo: “Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni, wrapping up a five-hour summation he started Monday, blasted Menendez for claiming he didn’t know his wife, Nadine, took cash, gold, a luxury car, mortgage payments, and other valuables beginning soon after the couple started dating in 2018 Going count by count of the 18-count indictment, Monteleoni reminded jurors of evidence prosecutors presented since the trial started in mid-May that linked the riches to the couple’s co-defendants, Fred Daibes, Wael Hana, and Jose Uribe… ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the buck stops here. The thousands and thousands of bucks stop here. It’s time to hold him responsible. It’s time to hold them all responsible,’ Monteleoni said… Menendez attorney Adam Fee faced jurors Tuesday afternoon to deliver the first half of his closing statement, ridiculing the prosecution’s case as a ‘towering Jenga stack of stuff.’

BLAME FINTHEART GLOMGOLD
— Prosecutors Are Trying to Sell You a Story, Menendez Lawyer Tells Jury from New York Times’ Benjamin Weiser, Nicholas Fandos, Tracey Tully, and Maria Cramer: “A lawyer for Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, in a fiery closing argument on Tuesday at the senator’s trial on bribery charges, accused prosecutors of building a case that relied on half-truths, unsupported inferences, factual leaps and guesses. ‘The gaps you are being asked to fill are not based on evidence,’ the lawyer, Adam Fee, told the jury at the trial, which is in its ninth week in Federal District Court in Manhattan. ‘Don’t fall into a trap of buying a story — a forceful, well-told, long, long story,’ Mr. Fee said. ‘Resist that.’ … At times combative and jocular, Mr. Fee belittled the government’s closing argument accusing Mr. Menendez and his wife of selling the senator’s office for lucrative bribes. He said prosecutors relied on “cherry-picked nonsense,” were “fudging” witness testimony and misleadingly portrayed Mr. Menendez as ‘Scrooge McDuck swimming in gold coins.’”

LOTS AND LOTS OF METAPHORS
— Menendez attorney casts doubt on prosecution’s case in closing arguments from POLITICO’s Ry Rivard and Daniel Han: “Sen. Bob Menendez’s defense team argued Tuesday that a jury is all that stands between the New Jersey Democrat and a ‘lifetime of shame.’ In the defense’s closing arguments, Menendez attorney Adam Fee said federal prosecutors had used every manner of ‘lawyer stuff’ to fill in gaps in their case. Prosecutors, who wrapped up their first set of closing arguments earlier on Tuesday, allege the senator is part of numerous schemes to disrupt criminal cases against New Jersey business people and aid the government of Egypt in exchange for bribes. Fee said prosecutors had used “every version of misdirection” and told a “one-sided story” by ‘riffing,’ ‘fudging,’ ‘misleading’ and using ‘shifty’ inferences.’ Throughout his two-hour argument, Fee tried to cast doubt on prosecutors’ case with descriptions of it being filled with “half-truths,” “fantasy,” “conjecture,” “speculation” and “games.” ‘You’re being asked to imagine, in the gaps of evidence, the criminal stuff,’ Fee told jurors.”

NO, NO BODY, NO CRIME
— Sen. Bob Menendez’s lawyer tells jury in closing that prosecutors failed to prove a single charge from Associated Press’ Larry Neumeister: “Adam Fee, told the Manhattan federal court jury that there were too many gaps in evidence that prosecutors wanted jurors to fill in on their own to conclude crimes were committed or that Menendez accepted any bribes. ‘The absence of evidence should be held against the prosecution,’ he said. ‘There’s zero evidence of him saying or suggesting that he was doing something for a bribe.’ And he defended over $100,000 in gold bars and more than $480,000 in cash found in an Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home during a 2022 FBI raid, although he acknowledged of the valuables: ‘It’s provocative. It’s atypical.’ Prosecutors have not come close to meeting their burden to show you that any of the gold or cash was given to Senator Menendez as a bribe,’ Fee said. ‘This is a case with a lot of inferences,’ he said, suggesting there were large gaps in the evidence that was unsupported by emails, texts or other evidence.’”

I HAVE LOST MY CLOSET KEY
— A ‘preposterous’ defense, prosecutor in Bob Menendez trial concludes from Washington Post’s Shayna Jacobs and Salvador Rizzo: “Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni scoffed at the idea that Menendez’s wife, Nadine, secretly hoarded thousands of dollars she collected without his knowledge, saying ‘he obviously had access to the closet in his own bedroom.’ … ‘Throughout this trial, you heard that everyone was to blame but Menendez,’ Monteleoni said in his five hours of closing argument.”

IF IT DOESN’T FIT, YOU MUST ACQUIT
— Menendez blasts feds as lacking ‘reliable proof’ of guilt in bribery trial close from Courthouse News Service’s Josh Russell: “Fee chastised prosecutors for prompting jurors to draw inferences about Menendez’s guilt based on dense spreadsheets and summary charts of phone and email communications, while later in his closing arguments making his own conclusions about the cash and gold found in Nadine’s home from the limited concrete evidence available. ‘You would infer this is Nadine’s money,’ Fee told jurors. Regardless of the defense’s explanations for this cash and gold, Fee insisted prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the cash and gold were the in fact items received through bribery. ‘The evidence doesn’t supply confidence about that conclusion,’ he said.”

CLASSIC TRACEY TULLY
— Menendez Trial’s Odd Moments: Pyramids, French Nicknames and a Bell from New York Times’ Tracey Tully: “The bribery case against Senator Robert Menendez features an assortment of exotic elements: Qatari sheikhs, bricks of gold bullion, halal meat certification and Egyptian intelligence officers. Trial testimony has taken jurors from Cairo to Havana to Beirut. But on top of the complex — and serious — corruption charges, the trial has at times meandered into offbeat and sometimes humorous territory. Here are a few of the more memorable moments.”

* Bob Menendez ‘Entitlement’ Led to Cash, Gold Bribes, US Says
*Feds blast ‘Gold Bar Bob’ Menendez’s blame-his-wife defense at bribery trial
* Sen. Menendez’s Defense Says Focus on Gold Belies Lack of Bribery Evidence

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