Menendez Indicted
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Menendez Ally Pleads Guilty in Bribery Case and Agrees to Cooperate
Jose Uribe, a former New Jersey insurance broker charged in what prosecutors have described as a broad bribery scheme involving Senator Robert Menendez, pleaded guilty on Friday in Manhattan.
Mr. Uribe had been accused of providing Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife, with a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for Mr. Menendez’s efforts to intercede in an insurance-fraud investigation in New Jersey.
As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Uribe also agreed to “cooperate fully” with prosecutors in their investigation, according to a formal plea agreement signed by Mr. Uribe, his lawyer and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Uribe is expected to “truthfully and completely disclose all information with respect to the activities of himself and others concerning all matters about which this office inquires of him,” the agreement states.
He admitted providing the car to Ms. Menendez “with the intent to influence an official act” as he pleaded guilty to seven counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.The judge, Sidney H. Stein of Federal District Court, set Mr. Uribe’s sentencing for June 14, which means it could come during the trial of Mr. Menendez and his three remaining co-defendants, which is scheduled to start on May 6.
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How is he still in the Senate?
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More charges:
Menendez (D-N.J.); his wife, Nadine Menendez; and two associates, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were charged in an 18-count indictment that built upon the bribery charges they face in a case accusing them of conspiring to have the senator act as an illegal foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government.
Tuesday’s superseding indictment alleges again that Menendez and his wife accepted bribes — including cash, gold and a luxury car — in exchange for the senator to use his influence to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
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More charges:
Menendez (D-N.J.); his wife, Nadine Menendez; and two associates, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were charged in an 18-count indictment that built upon the bribery charges they face in a case accusing them of conspiring to have the senator act as an illegal foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government.
Tuesday’s superseding indictment alleges again that Menendez and his wife accepted bribes — including cash, gold and a luxury car — in exchange for the senator to use his influence to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
@George-K said in Menendez Indicted:
More charges:
Menendez (D-N.J.); his wife, Nadine Menendez; and two associates, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were charged in an 18-count indictment that built upon the bribery charges they face in a case accusing them of conspiring to have the senator act as an illegal foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government.
Tuesday’s superseding indictment alleges again that Menendez and his wife accepted bribes — including cash, gold and a luxury car — in exchange for the senator to use his influence to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
The Just Us department at work once again. How is the Biden family still walking the streets while this poor guy is suffering?
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@Mik said in Menendez Indicted:
Bob's on the right team, dontchaknow.
In fairness, however, his wife is also under indictment, so that probably helps the cause for delay.
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@Mik said in Menendez Indicted:
Bob's on the right team, dontchaknow.
In fairness, however, his wife is also under indictment, so that probably helps the cause for delay.
@George-K said in Menendez Indicted:
his wife is also under indictment,
and I believe that they are in one trial together.
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The first half of this focus on Sen. Menendez, the second half rips into stock trading by Senators and Congressional Representatives:
Link to video -
Some of the photos released by the FBI from their search of his house.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-menendez-trial-bribery-egypt-military-aid/
Prosecutors in Bob Menendez trial can't use evidence they say is critical to case, judge rules
U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein said prosecutors could not use text messages from 2019 that allegedly show Menendez, who was the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assuring Egypt and the New Jersey businessmen who are alleged to have bribed him that he was not delaying military aid to the country after Egypt heard he had put a hold on it.
The jury also cannot see another text from 2022 in which the senator's wife, Nadine, allegedly told one of the businessmen that "Bob had to sign off on this." The text included a link about two pending foreign military sales to Egypt, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors argued last week that Egypt was "frantic about not getting their money's worth," which is why it contacted Menendez through two of the New Jersey businessmen, who allegedly gave the senator cash, gold bars, and other things of value. The text involving Menendez's wife signaled, "You keep the bribes flowing, and he is going to keep giving you what you want on the military aid," prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told Stein before the decision.
But Stein determined the Constitution's "speech or debate" clause, which protects lawmakers against prosecution over official legislative acts, applied to the evidence.
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Background:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/22/menendez-corruption-trial-prosecutors-00159557
Menendez’s attorneys are arguing that some of the most damning evidence against him cannot be shown to jurors without violating lawmakers’ constitutional “speech or debate” privileges. Now prosecutors worry a pending ruling by Judge Sidney Stein could create a class of “super citizens” in Congress who are above the law.
Stein is considering whether jurors can see text messages and phone records that prosecutors say will show Egyptian officials were “frantic about not getting their money’s worth” and Menendez’s wife boasted about her husband’s influence over arms sales.
Prosecutors are already having to dance around some of Menendez’s Senate actions because of the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. It grants a form of immunity to lawmakers that is mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of lawmakers, their aides or other congressional officials.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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They don't seem to think it applies to the president, and perhaps it does not by deliberate omission. Not sure how it would apply to his wife's texts.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/31/menendez-usda-new-jersey-00161121
In May 2019, a senior official at the USDA was told by his then-chief-of-staff that Sen. Bob Menendez would call his personal cell phone in around an hour.
The agriculture official, Ted McKinney, had been trying to get Egyptian officials to reverse their decision to grant a new company a monopoly certifying halal meat exported to that country. That decision, he recalled from the witness stand of Menendez’s corruption trial Friday, was “very unusual” and could hurt American beef interests.
McKinney said that he would “never forget the words” Menendez told him during the brief call: “Stop interfering with my constituent.”
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They don't seem to think it applies to the president, and perhaps it does not by deliberate omission. Not sure how it would apply to his wife's texts.
