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They also argued that having the doctor testify appeared to be an effort by Mr. Menendez to present alleged facts before the jury without subjecting himself to cross-examination by testifying himself. He will be tried with two New Jersey businessmen who also were accused of participating in the bribery conspiracy. The senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, was charged as well but granted a separate trial, in July, after her lawyers said she had a serious medical condition that would require surgery and an extended period of recovery. The indictment, which runs 66 pages, outlines a variety of schemes. But perhaps nothing has caught the public eye as much as its descriptions of the cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible found during a June 2022 search of the senator’s home in Edgewood Cliffs, N.J.

Persons: Menendez, Judge Stein, Rosenbaum, Nadine Menendez Organizations: Democrat, Foreign Relations, Benz Locations: New Jersey, Egypt, Qatar, Jersey, Edgewood Cliffs, N.J

A Manhattan judge refused on Thursday to dismiss bribery and other charges against Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey on the grounds that they violate constitutional protections afforded to members of Congress. The ruling does not address other grounds that Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, has cited in asking that the charges against him, which are still pending before the judge, be dismissed. Mr. Menendez could file an appeal of the ruling, which could end up delaying his trial for months. It currently is scheduled to begin on May 6. Lawyers for Mr. Menendez had asked the judge, Sidney H. Stein of Federal District Court, to throw out the charges, arguing that overzealous prosecutors were criminalizing the normal activity of legislators and flouting the protections given to members of Congress under what is known as the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause.

Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, Sidney H, Stein Organizations: Manhattan, Robert Menendez of New, Democrat, Federal, Court Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey

☆ Robert Menendez and Wife Are Charged With Obstruction of Justice
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | More About Benjamin Weiser | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The new charges against the Menendezes appear related to information that was provided to the government by Mr. Uribe, who in court on Friday described meeting with Ms. Menendez at a Marriott Hotel after receiving a subpoena in the case. Mr. Uribe said in court that Ms. Menendez had wanted to get their stories straight about a Mercedes-Benz convertible he had given her as a bribe. “She asked what was I going to say if somebody asked me about the car payments,” Mr. Uribe said. In the new charges, prosecutors say that Mr. and Ms. Menendez paid Mr. Uribe back for the payments he had made on the Mercedes and falsely referred to that money as a “loan” in conversations with their lawyers, deliberately mischaracterizing the transaction. As a result, the indictment charges, Mr. Menendez in June “caused his then counsel to make false and misleading statements to the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.” Two months later, Ms. Menendez did the same.

Persons: Uribe, Menendez, “, Mr Organizations: Marriott, Benz, Mercedes, Southern, of Locations: United States, of New York

☆ Jurors in Trump Defamation Trial to Go Unnamed for Their Own Protection
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | More About Benjamin Weiser | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Separately, the jury did not find Mr. Trump had raped Ms. Carroll, but held Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the department store dressing room, awarding her $2.02 million in damages. Mr. Trump has appealed the jury’s verdict. Mr. Trump, the judge noted at the time, had made sharply critical statements about the forewoman of a special grand jury in Atlanta; Mr. Trump has since been indicted there. Judge Kaplan also cited Mr. Trump’s repeated statements about Ms. Carroll and the court in her case and other cases against him. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Persons: Carroll, Trump, ”, Judge Kaplan, Carroll’s, Trump’s Organizations: Mr, Washington , D.C Locations: Atlanta, New York, Georgia, New York State, Washington ,, Florida

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey had a problem — and, prosecutors say, an opportunity. And as New Jersey’s senior senator, Mr. Menendez was in a position to help, by recommending the next leader of the office overseeing the case. In early 2021, Mr. Menendez urged President Biden to nominate a lawyer he knew well as the state’s next U.S. attorney: Esther Suarez, a politically connected prosecutor in his home county. When White House and Justice Department officials interviewed Ms. Suarez, they found her knowledge of federal law lacking, and they had substantial concerns about her qualifications, according to four people familiar with the sessions. Mr. Menendez pushed for Ms. Suarez to be given another chance, the people said.

Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, Biden, Esther Suarez, Suarez, Mr Organizations: Robert Menendez of New, White, Justice Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey

☆ Businessman Indicted With Menendez Is Arrested at Kennedy Airport
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | More About Benjamin Weiser | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The senator, Ms. Menendez, Mr. Hana and two other businessmen were each charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. Mr. Menendez and his wife were also charged with conspiracy to commit extortion under the color of official right, meaning that they used the senator’s official position to force someone to give them something of value. Mr. Menendez has maintained his innocence, saying Friday that prosecutors “wrote these charges as they wanted; the facts are not as presented.” At a news conference on Monday, he said he had no intention of bowing to calls for his resignation. Mr. Menendez, his wife and the two other businessmen — Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and fund-raiser for Mr. Menendez; and Jose Uribe, who works in trucking and insurance — are expected to be arraigned in Federal District Court on Wednesday morning. Mr. Hana was led into the courtroom wearing a light blue button-down shirt, navy blue slacks and black slip-on shoes with a design on top.

Persons: Menendez, “, Mr, — Fred Daibes, Jose Uribe, Ms, Hana, Lawrence J, Lustberg Organizations: Court, EG Locations: New Jersey, Egypt

☆ Trump’s Next Defamation Trial Will Skip to What Damages He Should Pay
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | More About Benjamin Weiser | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the writer E. Jean Carroll, who won a recent defamation lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump, doesn’t have to prove again that he defamed her in another lawsuit she has filed against him when it goes to trial in January. She must show only what damages, if any, Mr. Trump must pay for comments he made in 2019 after she first publicly accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room decades ago. Mr. Trump called her accusation “totally false,” said he had never met Ms. Carroll and that he could not have raped her because “she’s not my type.”Ms. Carroll, 79, won a separate defamation lawsuit in May based on comments Mr. Trump posted last October on his Truth Social website calling her claim a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”In that case, a Manhattan jury found Mr. Trump, 77, liable for sexually abusing Ms. Carroll and awarded her $2.02 million in damages for the attack. Jurors also awarded Ms. Carroll $2.98 million in damages for defamation.

Persons: Jean Carroll, Donald J, Trump, ”, Carroll, “ she’s, Ms Locations: Manhattan

Three different prosecutors want to put Donald J. Trump on trial in four different cities next year, all before Memorial Day and in the midst of his presidential campaign. A morass of delays, court backlogs and legal skirmishes awaits, interviews with nearly two dozen current and former prosecutors, judges, legal experts and people involved in the Trump cases show. Some experts predicted that only one or two trials will take place next year; one speculated that none of the four Trump cases will start before the election. And between the extensive legal arguments that must take place before a trial can begin — not to mention that the trials themselves could last weeks or months — there are simply not enough boxes on the calendar to squeeze in all the former president’s trials. “While each of the cases seems at this point to be strong, there’s only so much you can ask a defendant to do at one time.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ”, Jeffrey Bellin Organizations: Trump, Republican, & Mary Law School Locations: Washington

On Tuesday, she ordered the city to inform the U.S. attorney’s office and others how it planned to fix some of the pressing issues within the jails. Shortly after the judge’s order was made public, Mayor Adams delivered a strenuous defense of his management of the jails. “I am the best person in this administration to finally turn around the Department of Correction,” the mayor said during a news conference. Mr. Adams asked what had changed since then to suggest that the city should be stripped of its authority. In a series of recent reports, the first of them issued in May, Mr. Martin criticized Mr. Adams and his correction commissioner, Louis A. Molina, for hiding episodes of violence and negligence.

Persons: Swain’s, Mayor Adams, Adams, Williams, Steve J, Martin, Mr, Louis A, Molina Organizations: of Correction, Mr Locations: U.S, Rikers

Mr. Williams’s office said it would also seek to have the city held in contempt of court “to address the ongoing risk of harm” to detainees and jails staff. Ultimately it will fall to a judge, Laura Taylor Swain, to decide whether a takeover is necessary. Any finding from the judge that the city is unable to manage its own jails could be deeply embarrassing to Mr. Adams and his administration. The following year, Mayor Adams assumed office and appointed a new jails commissioner, Louis A. Molina, who vowed to get things under control. Still, 19 people died while being held in city jails in 2022, or directly after they were released, the most in nearly a decade.

Persons: “, ”, Laura Taylor Swain, Adams, Mayor Adams, Louis A, Molina Locations: East, Covid

☆ Presidency Doesn’t Shield Trump From Carroll’s Suit, Justice Dept. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | More About Benjamin Weiser | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department said Tuesday that it would no longer argue that President Donald J. Trump’s derogatory statements about E. Jean Carroll in 2019 were made as part of his official duties as president — a reversal that gives new momentum to her case. Ms. Carroll, 79, who already has won a trial accusing Mr. Trump of sexual abuse years ago and defamation after he left the White House, now is trying to push forward a separate lawsuit that has been mired in appeals. If a judge ultimately finds that Mr. Trump’s comments were part of his official duties, that case could be dismissed because a president cannot be sued for defamation. The Justice Department had taken the position, first during the Trump administration and later under President Biden, that Mr. Trump was acting in his official capacity when he called Ms. Carroll a liar and denied her accusation that he had raped her nearly 30 years ago in a Manhattan department store dressing room. But the department said in a court filing Tuesday that new evidence had surfaced since Mr. Trump, 77, left office in January 2021 — including in the recent civil trial in which a Manhattan jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll.

Persons: Donald J, Jean Carroll, —, Carroll, Trump, Trump’s, Biden Organizations: Department, White House, Justice Locations: Manhattan

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