When Sen. Robert Menendez was indicted on corruption charges last year after investigators found $486,000 in cash hidden around his New Jersey home, he offered a simple and “outdated” explanation. Did. Staying at home was a habit he learned from his Cuban immigrant parents.
But federal prosecutors in a filing late Friday offered new details that undermine Menendez's claims. Some of the cash was wrapped in bands indicating that at least $10,000 at a time had been withdrawn from banks in which Mr. Menendez and his wife “didn't know the deposit accounts.” Prosecutors said this showed “the money was provided by another person.”
Menendez's lawyers recently asked a judge to exclude much of the cash found in his home from evidence when the senator's trial begins in Manhattan next month, saying there is no evidence linking the money to the crime. He claimed that there was no. Prosecutors' charges Friday were in response to that request.
The issue of cash cuts echoes a key theme in the government's case: that the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were living beyond their means and financed it with bribes.
The cash, along with gold bars and other valuables, were “products” of the bribery scheme, according to the federal indictment. Much of the cash found at the couple's Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home was found in a bedroom closet, prosecutors said in a filing. Additional cash was found in a duffel bag in the office, a bag on a shelf above a coat rack in the basement, a pocket of a men's jacket hanging on the coat rack, and footwear under the jacket. The government also announced that more than $70,000 was found in a safe deposit box controlled by Menendez.
Mr. Menendez, 70, and his wife are accused of using his political influence to obstruct a criminal investigation in New Jersey and accepting bribes in exchange for his willingness to support the governments of Egypt and Qatar. has been indicted for. The Menendez couple and two New Jersey businessmen charged in the scheme have all pleaded not guilty.
Menendez, a former chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the two businessmen are scheduled to stand trial together starting May 6 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The senator has rejected widespread calls to resign and has said he would run for re-election as an independent in November if cleared.
Prosecutors say at least 10 cash envelopes found in a raid of the senator's home and safe deposit box contained more than $80,000 and had fingerprints or DNA from one of the businessmen charged in the case. It said it was detected. Gold bars were also reportedly tied to the businessmen.
Mr. Menendez's lawyer had no comment Saturday. But court documents say they are seeking to bar prosecutors from telling jurors only about cash that has no clear connection to the alleged co-conspirators. “The government should not be allowed to attempt to sway juries by dramatically presenting valuables that bear only a speculative connection to the crime charged,” they wrote.
Judge Sidney H. Stein said Thursday that Menendez, 57, has a newly diagnosed medical condition that requires surgical treatment and likely a long recovery, after attorneys said. The court ruled that she would be tried separately. The judge tentatively set her trial date for July.
Last September, the American-born Menendez explained at least some of the money found in his home by linking it to his family's roots in Cuba in the years before Fidel Castro took power.
Over the course of 30 years, Menendez said he has withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from his personal savings account and kept it for “emergencies.” He said the custom stems from “my family's history of facing confiscation in Cuba.”
“It may seem old-fashioned, but these are money withdrawn from my personal savings account based on income I earned legally over 30 years,” he added.
In an interview with PBS the following month, Menendez elaborated, saying he had been withdrawing $400 in cash every week for “the majority” of 30 years.