Opening Statements Begin for Menendez  05/15 06:14

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- The bribery trial of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is ready 
to start with opening statements Wednesday as prosecutors seek to convince a 
jury that the longtime powerful Democrat was willing to sell his influence to 
benefit three businessmen in return for cash, gold bars and a fancy car.

   The three-term senator has insisted since his fall arrest that he is not 
guilty of charges that he used his influence to aid three New Jersey 
businessmen, including by providing favors to the governments of Egypt and 
Qatar.

   Prosecutors say the men showered Menendez and his wife with gifts to ensure 
Menendez would help them.

   Menendez, 70, is on trial in Manhattan federal court with two of the 
businessmen. A third has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the other 
defendants. Menendez's wife is scheduled to be tried in July.

   For the senator, the trial represents the second time he has been criminally 
charged in a federal court in the last decade.

   In 2017, a federal jury deadlocked on corruption charges brought in New 
Jersey, and prosecutors did not seek to retry him.

   Those charges were unrelated to the current prosecution of Menendez, who 
held the powerful post of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
before he was forced from the job after the new charges were revealed last fall.

   Judge Sidney H. Stein said late Tuesday that he expected to have a jury in 
place by mid-morning on Wednesday, at the latest. Opening statements would 
start soon afterward.

   Menendez is on trial with Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, 
and businessman Wael Hana. All have have pleaded not guilty.

   An indictment alleges that Daibes delivered gold bars and cash to Menendez 
and his wife to get the senator to help him secure a multimillion-dollar deal 
with a Qatari investment fund by acting in ways favorable to Qatar's government.

   The indictment also said Menendez did things benefitting Egyptian officials 
in exchange for bribes from Hana as the businessman secured a lucrative deal 
with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary 
requirements.

   Menendez has said he will not be seeking reelection on the Democratic ticket 
this fall, although he has not ruled out running as an independent.