DAY TWENTY-FOUR

U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein has faced delays in the criminal trial of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. The initial start date of May 6 was pushed to May 13; a flood in the jury room at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan was followed by several jurors getting stuck in an elevator and a juror who didn’t show up for most of the day due to an injury, and Menendez’s need for time off to deal with his wife’s breast cancer, led to a Memorial Day weekend lasting more than a week. Stein asked defense counsel to trim their witness list in a bit to catch up.

On Wednesday, Stein dismissed an alternate juror who had non-refundable cruise tickets; around the time of the jury selection, he promised the woman she would make her cruise.

Menendez has been through this before: during his 2017 corruption trial, a juror was dismissed during deliberations since she had prior plans for a trip to the Bahamas. That juror, a New Jersey Transit employee, told reporters that she would have voted to find Menendez not guilty.

“I feel like the government was very corrupted, not that Menendez was. That they were, to me, railroading him. This is how I feel. Personally, he’s not guilty on all count,” the juror said. “I don’t think he did anything wrong.”

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Nadine Menendez’s jeweler testified that Bob Menendez never visited his story, telling jurors that only she came in to sell gold bars.

DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 277

DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,412

MISSED VOTES: 34
There were no votes in the Senate today.

And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 years and 54 days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.

VAKSEN KHOROZIAN “I DON’T QUESTION CUSTOMERS” POLICY
— As feds closed in, Sen. Menendez’s wife cashed out, jeweler tells jury in bribery trial from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DeFilippo: “Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife unloaded gold bars and coins worth almost $250,000 just weeks before FBI agents searched their Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022, telling her jeweler she needed money to pay bills, the jeweler testified Wednesday. Jeweler Vasken Khorozian told jurors Nadine Menendez visited his Edgewater jewelry store three times between March and May of 2022 to sell four one-kilogram bars, worth about $60,000 each, and four 24-carat American Eagle coins worth $7,200. The first time, she told him she ‘had a financial situation,’ but she didn’t explain her subsequent visits, he testified. ‘I don’t question customers,’ Khorozian said … Khorozian said he didn’t bother recording the serial numbers because he trusted Nadine Menendez and knew she was close with Daibes and Hana, who he considered close friends. ‘If I knew (then) what I know now, I would do differently,’ Khorozian said.”

WAEL HANA IS JUST A SUPPORTING ACTOR IN HIS OWN TRIAL
— The source of Menendez’s gold bars takes the stand by New Jersey Spotlight News’ Brenda Flanagan:” On Wednesday, jurors heard from the man who sold the infamous gold bars that ended up in the hands of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, and are at the center of the bribery charges against them. Vasken Khorozian, a jeweler in Edgewater, did business with the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, and businessman Wael Hana, both of whom are co-defendants accused of participating in a sprawling bribery scheme. Khorozian described those transactions, including selling hundreds of thousands worth of gold bars on behalf of Nadine Menendez.”

NOW LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, FUNNY BOY
— Menendez Pals ‘Generous,’ Jeweler Says In Joke-Filled Testimony from Law 360’s Cara Salvatore: “A jeweler who helped Sen. Robert Menendez’s wife sell gold bars that were supposedly bribes testified Wednesday that the codefendants who gave Menendez the bars have always been generous, salting his testimony with so many droll comments that the New York federal judge – who initially bantered back – eventually gave a special instruction reinforcing that the trial is ‘very serious.’”

Spread the news: