DAY TWENTY-SEVEN

Bob Menendez’s 80-year-old sister testified that Cubans keep cash in their homes, and his forensic accountant told jurors that Menendez took $400 in cash out of the bank about twice a month between 2008 and 2022. But that doesn’t add up to $552,000 – the amount of cash FBI agents seized from the senator’s Englewood Cliffs home. And defense attorneys say they haven’t ruled out Menendez testifying in his own defense.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Menendez’s lawyer, Adam Fee, is trying to convince jurors that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, could not have been conspiring to accept bribes in 2018 because they two had broken up. (For those trying to do that math: Menendez was seeking re-election in the fall of 2018, after beating back corruption charges one year earlier.)

DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 282

DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,417

MISSED VOTES: 34
There have been no votes in the Senate since June 20 and is not expected back in session until next week.

And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 years and 59 days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.

MUST-READ: Sen. Menendez’s lawyers begin their defense Monday. Here are key elements of prosecutors’ case from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo.

HOW WOULD DAD FEEL ABOUT CASH BEING STUFFED IN A BOOT?
— ‘Don’t trust the banks.’ Sen. Menendez’s sister takes the stand to defend her brother from News 12’s Chris Keating: “The first witness called to defend the senator was his sister, 80-year-old Caridad Gonzalez. Gonzalez explained to jurors why it should be of no surprise that her brother had $400,000 in cash stashed away … She said that because of the family’s Cuban background, it should come as no shock that her ‘baby brother,’ as she described him, had a large amount of cash inside of his and wife Nadine Menendez’s Englewood Cliff’s home. ‘It was normal, he’s a Cuban,’ Gonzalez stated. ‘Every Cuban that came to the U.S. in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, you’ll find cash in the home. In Cuba, they take everything away from you.” She explained that she was born in Cuba and the family had left Havana for the U.S. because her father’s business was being threatened with a takeover. Gonzalez said her mother and father always hid cash and told their children to do the same. ‘Daddy always said, ‘Don’t trust the banks, always have money at home,’ she said. ‘My mom would take some out [of her check] and in the frames of the closet, she would stick it in there.’”

WILL HE OR WON’T HE?
— ‘It’s a Cuban Thing’: Menendez’s Sister Says Their Parents Also Hid Cash from New York Times’ Tracey Tully and Benjamin Weiser: “ Mr. Menendez’s lawyers have not indicated whether he will testify in his own defense; one lawyer, Adam Fee, told the judge on Monday that it was ‘still under consideration’ … Russell Richardson, a forensic accountant who analyzed Mr. Menendez’s cash banking withdrawals, testified that the senator took out roughly $400, about twice a month, between 2008 and 2022. During that time, those withdrawals totaled more than $150,000, Mr. Richardson said. Much of the cash the F.B.I. seized was found bundled in $10,000 stacks. Mr. Richardson, in cross-examination by a prosecutor, Catherine Ghosh, said there were no $10,000 withdrawals in the records he analyzed.”

THE NANNY DID IT
— Defense attorneys offer ordinary explanations for Sen. Menendez’s hoarded riches from New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo: “Defense attorneys also called Nadine Menendez’s younger sister Katia Tabourian to the stand Monday for a similar reason — to show that the 13 gold bars, gold coins, and jewelry investigators found in the couple’s home had more to do with family than bribery. Tabourian said their parents left the sisters gold as an inheritance, narrating evidentiary photos of jewelry the FBI had seized, saying they were family heirlooms or gifts. She also insisted the couple’s locked bedroom closet was Nadine’s alone, and that she kept it locked after a nanny stole from her years ago. Custody of the closet is key, because Menendez’s defense team has said he wasn’t aware of cash, gold, and other valuables his wife stored there because it was her closet and he didn’t have access to it.”

MENENDEZ HAS NICE MANNERS
— ‘It’s a Cuban thing’: Senator Robert Menendez’s sister testifies that stashing cash at home is ‘normal’ by Courthouse News Service’s Erik Uebelacker: “Nadine (Menendez)’s sister, Katia Tabourian, also made an appearance in court on Monday to testify for the defense. Taking the witness stand after Gonzalez, Tabourian praised Menendez’s old fashioned manners and treatment of her sister, to the point that it appeared to mildly irritate U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein. ‘He is amazing. Every time she gets up at a dinner or a lunch, he would stand up,’ Tabourian said. ‘Very respectful, very kind.’ ‘Okay, thank you,’ Stein said, cutting her off. But Stein declined to let the defense lawyers dig deep into that topic, fearing that the details could prejudice the prosecutors and turn his courtroom into a “soap opera.” The attorneys tread lightly around the issue on Monday, asking Tabourian only broad questions about Nadine’s prior relationship resurfacing during her marriage with Menendez. :That was creating a lot of chaos in her relationship with the senator,’ Tabourian said. ‘I know that he, I think, was fed up with the previous relationship constantly coming in between [them].'”

WHAT EVERY HAPPENED TO GENTLE JOHNNY RAMSENSKY?
— Sen. Bob Menendez’s sister says he stashed cash for decades: ‘It was normal. He’s a Cuban’ from New York Post’s Hannah Fierick and Ben Kochman: “Tabourian added that Nadine’s practice of having a safe in her closet was typical of people of Lebanese heritage, including their mother. ‘Everybody had a safe,’ she testified.

LIKE SANDS THROUGH AN HOURGLASS
— It’s ‘a bad soap opera.’ Judge in Menendez corruption trial says he’s tired of the drama from the Star-Ledger’s S.P. Sullivan: “The U.S. district court judge presiding over New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez’s second federal corruption trial says he has had enough of the drama. ‘You’re not only making it a soap opera, you’re making it a bad soap opera.’ Judge Sidney Stein reproached lawyers for the defense and prosecution as the case crawled into its eighth week Monday … the trial was nearly brought to a halt Monday as the defense and prosecution squabbled over which private details of the Menendez couple’s relationship the jury would hear. ‘It’s an abuse of the court system,” Stein said before the jury entered the courtroom, complaining of a ‘tsunami of submissions’ received over the weekend in the evidence dispute … On Monday morning, Stein said he would need “at least” a day without the jury to sort through the legal arguments. ‘I’m tempted to tell the jurors it’s the parties’ fault,’ he said, before adding: ‘I’m not going to do that.’”

* Defense witnesses in Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial begin testimony

* Sen. Bob Menendez’s defense begins with sister testifying about family tradition of storing cash

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