Sen. Bob Menendez was found guilty on all counts Tuesday in his federal corruption trial.
Federal prosecutors in New York alleged the New Jersey Democrat accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator’s political clout. Three New Jersey businessmen who were also charged, along with the governments of Egypt and Qatar, were the alleged recipients. Two of those co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were also convicted of all counts they faced.
The jury deliberated for about 13 hours over three days.
‘I have never, ever been a foreign agent,’ Menendez says
Menendez pleaded not guilty to 16 federal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction. He said he plans to appeal his conviction and is “deeply disappointed” by the jury’s decision.
“I have never violated my oath,” he said outside the courthouse Tuesday. “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”
He added that the jury’s decision would “put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.”
Menendez did not respond to questions on whether he will resign.
He will be sentenced on Oct. 29 and faces decades in prison.
Sen. Robert Menendez leaves court after the verdict was read at his trial in New York City, July 16, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
Calls to resign
Menendez is not required to resign despite his conviction, though could be expelled.
Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called for his resignation immediately after the verdict.
“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” he said.
Sen. Cory Booker, Menendez’s New Jersey counterpart, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy joined in the calls for his immediate resignation. If the senator refuses to vacate his office, Murphy said he will call on the U.S. Senate to expel him.
Sen. Bob Menendez arrives for his federal bribery case in Manhattan federal court, July 16, 2024, in New York City.
Adam Gray/Getty Images
The Senate Ethics Committee said it will “promptly” complete the investigation into Menendez’s conduct that it undertook when the allegations against him first surfaced.
The committee said it will consider the “full range of disciplinary actions available under the Rules of Procedure,” which include expulsion and censure.
He is not required to resign despite his conviction, though could be expelled.
‘Shocking levels of corruption’
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, whose office prosecuted the case, said following the verdict that this “has always been about shocking levels of corruption.”
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including gold, cash, and a Mercedes-Benz. This wasn’t politics as usual; this was politics for profit,” Williams said in a statement. “Because Senator Menendez has now been found guilty, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end. Corruption isn’t costless: it erodes public trust, and it undermines the rule of law. That’s why we’re so committed to fighting it, regardless of political party.”
Prosecutors claimed Menendez, 70, “put his power up for sale” in exchange for the gold, envelopes stuffed with money, checks to his wife for a no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. The FBI found gold bars and more than $400,000 in cash stashed in places including jackets and shoes throughout his home, prosecutors said.
“It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington,” federal prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said during his closing argument on July 8. “Robert Menendez wanted all that power and he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife.”
Defense derided DOJ’s case as ‘cherry-picked nonsense’
The defense, meanwhile, maintained that all of the actions in the indictment fell within the scope of Menendez’s position and that prosecutors failed to prove he took any bribes.
During his closing argument, defense attorney Adam Fee mocked the government’s case as “cherry-picked nonsense” and accused prosecutors of “fudging” the facts.
“The only honest verdict I submit here is to acquit him on each count,” Fee told the jury on July 9. “His actions were lawful, normal and good for the country.”
Menendez declined to testify in his own defense. While leaving court after the defense rested its case on July 3, he told reporters, “From my perspective, the government has failed to prove every aspect of its case.”
He said he expected his lawyers to present a “convincing and powerful summation” and that the jury would find him not guilty.
Sen. Bob Menendez leaves the Manhattan federal court, after hearing witness testimony during his trial in New York, June 10, 2024.
Stefan Jeremiah/AP
New Jersey businessmen, Menendez’s wife charged in case
Prosecutors told the jury that Menendez promised to use his power to help Egypt. According to the indictment, the arrangement was brokered by Hana, a New Jersey businessman and friend of Menendez’s wife, Nadine, who prosecutors said received the senator’s help preserving a halal meat monopoly.
Menendez was also accused of receiving a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for help disrupting a case by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Prosecutors said that in the spring of 2019, another New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty in the case, handed Nadine $15,000 in cash that she used as a down payment for the car. She texted Menendez, “Congratulations. We are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” according to prosecutors. Uribe kept making the monthly payments, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors claimed the senator promised a third businessman, Daibes, that he would interfere with Daibes’ federal prosecution and help the government of Qatar by supporting a Senate resolution praising the country.
Daibes’ fingerprints were found on the envelopes of cash found at Menendez’s home and serial numbers on the gold bars traced them to Daibes and Hana, according to prosecutors.
During the two months of testimony, jurors heard his sister explain why Menendez was caught with wads of cash stuffed into his embroidered congressional jacket: “It’s a Cuban thing,” Caridad Gonzalez said.
Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez arrive at a Manhattan court for an arraignment on new charges in the federal bribery case against them in New York City, March 11, 2024.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The defense also told jurors that Menendez and his wife, who has also been charged in the case, led separate lives and she had financial concerns that she kept from her husband.
Daibes and Hana pleaded not guilty to their charges. Uribe pleaded guilty and testified against the three defendants during the trial.
Menendez’s wife has pleaded not guilty to her charges and will be tried separately in August due to a medical condition. She is battling Grade 3 breast cancer, the senator revealed in mid-May at the beginning of the trial.
2nd corruption case against Menendez
Menendez, who has served as senator for New Jersey since 2006, is the first sitting member of Congress to be charged with conspiracy by a public official to act as a foreign agent.
In June, he filed a petition to get on the U.S. Senate ballot in New Jersey as an independent candidate.
He refused to resign, though he did step down as the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee following the initial indictment in September 2023.
This marked the second time the senator was charged with corruption. A 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts.
