DAY TWENTY

The corruption trial of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez continued today after a several-day delay due to co-defendant Fred Daibes’ positive Covid test – and it will be off again tomorrow thanks to Juneteenth. But today was a big day in court, with both U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger and former top Menendez aide Michael Soliman testifying about the 2021 process to pick a new U.S. Attorney.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Sellinger handed Menendez’s defense team a win when he said that he didn’t believe Menendez pressured him into taking unethical actions in a case involving Daibes. Soliman, meanwhile, testified on the background of the U.S. Attorney selection process, which involved Sellinger and another top contender, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez.

DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 269

DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,404

MISSED VOTES: 32
Menendez missed two votes today, neither of which were especially close. He also missed a vote yesterday – even though the trial was on pause, so there was theoretically nothing keeping him out of Washington.

And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 years and 46 days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.

THE SCALES OF JUSTICE ARE FALLING FROM HIS EYES
— Top federal prosecutor in New Jersey tells jury Sen. Menendez never pressured him from CNN’s Gregory Krieg and Sabrina Souza: “Philip Sellinger, now the US attorney for the District of New Jersey, said that in late 2020, he went to Menendez hoping for the senator’s support in his bid to be nominated to the post. During the conversation, Sellinger testified, Menendez mentioned that Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and co-defendant in the case, ‘was being treated unfairly’ by prosecutors who had indicted him on bank fraud charges. ‘Sen. Menendez hoped that if I became US attorney, that I would look at (the Daibes case) carefully,’ Sellinger said. That testimony came up again Tuesday when Menendez attorney Avi Weitzman pressed Sellinger on the nature of that interaction. ‘I did not believe that (Menendez) was asking me to do anything other than my official duty,’ Sellinger, a longtime friend and political supporter of Menendez, told the court. ‘I didn’t believe he was asking me to do anything.’ At that, Weitzman asked Sellinger if it was ‘fair to say that he didn’t ask you to put your thumb on the scales of justice?’ Sellinger nodded in agreement.”

THE TRIAL TAKES A WILD(STEIN) TURN
— Adviser testifies about Menendez schemes to bully the press, blame the White House from the New Jersey Monitor’s Dana DiFilippo: “Under questioning by prosecutor Daniel Richenthal, Soliman told jurors that he planted a false story in the press, coached Menendez on how to lie to people seeking political appointments, and vetted candidates for the senator with ‘optics’ always driving his advice and actions. ‘It was my job to protect the senator. So I just cared only about his optics,’ said Soliman, a partner at Mercury Public Affairs… When New Jersey Globe editor David Wildstein told Soliman he planned to do a story on the U.S. attorney candidates, Soliman said he and Menendez had several concerns. They worried Suarez would be seen as a diversity hire, a ‘hot button’ issue they wanted to avoid before the election, Soliman testified. And they wanted to divert attention from Suarez, whose negative publicity they worried could taint Menendez, he added. ‘Please try and delay’ the story, the senator urged Soliman in a text sent on the encrypted app Signal. Wildstein agreed to wait, Soliman said, but asked again the next month, after then-U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito’s resignation left the job open. Soliman told jurors he gave Wildstein a list of candidates he said Menendez was considering for the job, including Jamel Semper, a prominent attorney the Black clergy subsequently championed and who later became a federal judge. But the story that Menendez and Sen. Cory Booker were eyeing more than two candidates was wholly false, Soliman testified. Menendez never considered recommending anyone but Sellinger and then Suarez for the job, even though the White House requested at least three candidates, Soliman said.”

LESSON LEARNED
— Former Menendez aide testifies about gamesmanship around NJ’s top federal prosecutor from Politico’s Ry Rivard: “Soliman testified that other names, including Semper’s, were floated so Suarez wasn’t alone in getting scrutiny at the time. Soliman already expected she would get scrutiny for her handling of a politically sensitive investigation involving a former aide to Gov. Phil Murphy. But the plan didn’t work, because Saurez’s candidacy went down in flames amid press scrutiny. And floating Semper’s name even backfired when a group of Black ministers came out in support of Semper — who, Soliman testified, Menendez was never serious about recommending to Biden for the U.S. Attorney job. Soliman said Semper’s name was floated because Wildstein had suggested the list of names Menendez’s team was floating wasn’t diverse enough. Prosecutors showed an email from Menendez that seemed to confirm Soliman’s account. ‘This is just great,’ the senator wrote Soliman after the Black ministers came out in support of Semper, calling it a ‘lesson why you can’t let Wildstein drive your decisions.’”

BUOY BYE
— Prosecutors try to link alleged bribes of Sen. Bob Menendez to appointment of federal prosecutor by the Associated Press’s Larry Neumeister: “Sellinger testified on cross examination last week and Tuesday in ways favorable to the senator, including saying he never believed Menendez had asked him to do anything improper or unethical. Buoyed by Sellinger’s testimony on cross examination, Menendez left the courthouse Tuesday seeming upbeat, saying just before getting in his car: “Sellinger made it very clear. He was asked to do nothing wrong. And he didn’t.”

RELIVING THE GREATEST HITS
— Five memorable moments in the corruption trial of Bob Menendez from the Washington Post’s Salvador Rizzo: “Defense attorneys have cast Menendez as a loving yet unwitting husband whose wife, Nadine Menendez (formerly Arslanian), secretly collected gifts from several men who sought the lawmaker’s power and influence. Her trial is scheduled for later this year. Prosecution witnesses have painted a different picture, one in which Menendez, 70, was a savvy participant in the scheme and communicated directly with the three New Jersey businessmen accused of bribing him. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have begun winding down their presentation to the jury and are expected to rest their case next week. Here are five moments that captured the courtroom’s attention during the trial’s five weeks of testimony to date. All are likely to stick in jurors’ minds once they begin deliberating.”

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