Washington — Prosecutors trying to prove that New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez wielded his political influence in exchange for bribes cannot show jurors evidence they consider “critical” to their case, ruled a federal judge on Friday.
U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein said prosecutors could not use text messages from 2019 that would show Menendez, who was the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assuring Egypt and the New Jersey businessmen who allegedly bribed him that he was not delaying military aid to the country after Egypt learned he was withholding it.
The jury also cannot see another text from 2022 in which the senator’s wife, Nadine, reportedly told one of the businessmen that “Bob had to agree.” The text included a link to two pending foreign military sales to Egypt, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors argued last week that Egypt was “frantic about not getting value for money,” which is why it contacted Menendez through two of New York’s businessmen. Jersey, who allegedly gave money to the senator, gold ingots, and other things of value. The text implicating Menendez’s wife said: “You keep paying bribes, and he’s going to keep giving you what you want in military aid,” prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told Stein before decision.
But Stein determined that the constitutional “speech or debate” clause, which protects lawmakers from lawsuits related to official legislative acts, applied to the evidence.
“The main legislative act is clearly the continuation or the release of the continuation. I don’t think it matters that there was misinformation here,” Stein said Tuesday, before formalizing his decision in a order later this week.
Such an interpretation would prohibit “some of the most critical evidence,” Monteleoni countered.
While the move could complicate prosecutors’ case against Menendez regarding Egypt and military aid, the senator also faces a host of other accusations.
The corruption trial entered its third week on Tuesday and could last until early July. Jurors heard from a handful of witnesses, including an FBI agent who led the investigation. search of senator’s home in New Jersey in June 2022, an agricultural attaché who questioned Egypt about granting a halal certification monopoly to one of the New Jersey businessmen, and a lawyer who worked for the halal company and testified regarding a payment of $23,568.54 made to a lender of Menéndez’s wife to save their home from foreclosure.
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