DAY THREE
Twelve jurors – six men and six women — and six alternates were selected on Wednesday to decide if three-term U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was guilty of accepting bribes and other corrupt acts on the third day of his trial in Lower Manhattan.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Pomeranz went right for Menendez’s jugular: “He was entrusted to make big decisions, including decisions that affect this country’s national security. Robert Menendez was a United States senator on the take, motivated by greed, focused on how much money he could put in his own pocket and in his wife’s pocket .. His price, Pomerantz told the jury, was gold bars, envelopes stuffed with cash, checks to his wife for a no-show job, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.” — Sen. Bob Menendez ‘put his power up for sale,’ prosecutor claims in bribery trial from ABC News’ Aaron Katersky)
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Federal Prosecutors said that Menendez “put his power up for sale” while the defense attorney said Menendez was an innocent man and placed blame on the lawmaker’s wife, Nadine, who is undergoing treatment for cancer.”
DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 236
DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,372
DAYS UNTIL THE NEW JERSEY FILING DEADLINE: 20
Menendez is not running in the June Democratic primary but has not ruled out running as an independent if he’s acquitted.
MISSED VOTES: 6
Menendez missed votes on Wednesday to confirm two federal judges and an ambassador, and to invoke cloture on two other Biden judicial picks.
And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 Years and 14 Days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.
ABOUT THE JURORS
— Jury chosen for Sen. Robert Menendez corruption trial from Kevin Breuninger: “One of them, a self-described podcast ‘junkie,’ said she has called into the talk show of New York City public radio veteran Brian Lehrer ‘a million times.’ ‘He knows my voice.’ … Another would-be juror told the judge that he lives alone and that his wife and son recently died. A man who works as an attorney for a bank told Stein that he had previously contributed to Menendez’s political campaign. The donation was made after a request by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to the man, who said he had made ‘dozens’ of similar contributions over the years.”
TRENTON MAKES, MENENDEZ TAKES
— Menendez was a senator ‘on the take,’ prosecutors said from the New York Times’ Tracey Tully: “In her opening statement, Lara Pomerantz, an assistant U.S. attorney, used short sentences and relatable language to guide jurors through the complicated framework of the bribery charges against Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. She accused Mr. Menendez of being as corrupt as he was powerful. ‘This was not politics as usual … This was politics for profit. This was a United States senator on the take. More than once she turned and gestured toward Mr. Menendez, who was seated behind her, flanked by his lawyers. Mr. Menendez, 70, leaned forward attentively, but showed no obvious emotion, his hand at times resting on his chin and over his mouth.”
UNCHAINED MELODY
— NJ Sen. Bob Menendez claims he was ‘sidelined’ by wife Nadine, blames her for alleged bribery in opening remarks at corruption trial from the New York Post’s Jack Morphet, Ben Kochman, and Priscilla Gregory. “Me? Take my wife—please. New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez didn’t know anything about the gold bars hidden inside his home, his lawyer insisted in court Wednesday — blaming the pol’s “dazzling, tall” wife for stashing the trove away without his knowledge, The veteran Democrat’s lawyer told jurors in Manhattan federal court that Nadine Menendez ‘sidelined” her hubby … ‘Where were the gold bars found? [The] gold bars were found in a locked closet. It is Nadine’s closet,’ Menendez’s attorney Avi Weitzman said during opening statements, pulling up a photo of the closet, which he said was ‘filled with [Nadine’s] clothes.’ The senator did not know the gold bars were there… [Nadine] kept Bob sidelined. Nadine had these relationships long before she met Bob.”
RE-ELECT THE SENATOR
— Menendez was a ‘senator on the take,’ prosecutor says, while his lawyers blame his wife from POLITICO’s Ry Rivard and Daniel Han: “Weitzman’s opening statement began like a campaign speech about the senator’s hardscrabble upbringing and career… Weitzman’s main job was to defuse the bombshell evidence prosecutors said they have. He attempted to at length, offering reasons for all the headline-grabbing accusations against Menendez. The gold bars found at the senator’s. Those were found in Nadine’s locked closet … The envelopes of cash found in the senator’s home. The senator withdrew money because of his family history in Cuba. A New Jersey businessperson’s fingerprints on one of those envelopes of cash? Friends touch each other’s stuff — and ‘this isn’t a murder weapon,’ Weitzman said, ‘it’s an envelope.’”
RIGHT UNDER THE BUS
— New York Times reporting from inside the courthouse from the New York Times’ Nicolas Fandos: “This is a pretty remarkable moment in the courtroom right at the start: Menendez’s defense team is piling on his wife. ‘Let me say this about Nadine: Nadine had financial concerns that she kept from Bob,’ said Avi Weitzman, his lawyer. He asserts that the senator was in the dark about what his wife was up to with the businessmen prosecutors say bribed them.”
— And from the New York Times’ Maria Cramer: “Weitzman said the senator found Nadine ‘dazzling.’ She was beautiful, tall, and spoke four languages. ‘Bob fell for her.’”
THE OTHERS FROM GILLIGAN’S ISLAND
— Bob Menendez put his ‘power up for sale,’ prosecutors say in bribery trial opening from Courthouse News Services’ Josh Russell: “Pomerantz told jurors that Hana made bribe payments to Nadine, whom the business men used as a ‘go-between,’ through a shell company after Menendez contacted a U.S. Department of Agriculture official in a bid to help (Wael) Hana secure a monopoly on certifying Halal meat imported into Egypt from the United States. Pomerantz said on Wednesday that the Menendezes also received bribes from (Fred) Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, in exchange for the senator’s official interference with two criminal investigations in New Jersey.”
— Asked if Menendez should be expelled if he’s convicted, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “Look, I’m really glad that he’s not a Republican.”
* Menendez trial starts with vastly different portrayals of the senator
* Here are 7 reasons people gave to avoid jury duty.
* Defense Blames Senator Menendez’s Wife as Bribery Trial Starts.
* Prosecutors paint Menendez as putting ‘greed first’
* SKETCH ARTIST from the Associated Press’ Elizabeth Williams: Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz gives her opening statement while gesturing to Robert Menendez (far left) as Judge Sidney Stein presides in Manhattan federal court.
