Top related persons:
Top related locs:
Top related orgs:

Search resuls for: "Benjamin Weiser"


25 mentions found


A Manhattan jury returned the verdict after deliberating for about 13 hours over three days in Federal District Court. Mr. Menendez was found guilty on all 16 counts he faced, including bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and acting as an agent for Egypt. The verdict made Mr. Menendez the first United States senator to be found guilty of acting as an agent of a foreign power and the seventh to be convicted of a federal crime while in office. Mr. Menendez, 70, now faces the possibility of many years in prison when he is sentenced by the judge, Sidney H. Stein. The judge said he would sentence Mr. Menendez on Oct. 29.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, Sidney H, Stein Organizations: Robert Menendez of New, Senate Foreign Relations, Court, United Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Manhattan, Egypt, United States
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey was convicted on Tuesday of taking part in a complicated bribery scheme in which he traded political favors for cash, gold bars and other gifts. Federal prosecutors said the plot began in February 2018, less than a month after Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, was cleared of charges tied to an unrelated federal corruption case in New Jersey. Here are the central elements of the case against the senator and his two co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, two New Jersey businessmen:Aiding EgyptMr. Menendez was charged with using his influence and power as a senator in ways that benefited both the government of Egypt and Mr. Hana, an American citizen who emigrated from Egypt and was trying to get a halal meat certification company off the ground in New Jersey. Mr. Menendez, a former leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was accused of steering weapons and aid to Egypt in exchange for bribes.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, Egypt Mr, Hana Organizations: Robert Menendez of New, Democrat, Senate Foreign Relations Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, New Jersey, Jersey, Egypt, American
A Senator’s Fate Is in a Jury’s Hands
  + stars: | 2024-07-12 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | Tracey Tully | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +1 min
The Manhattan jury in Senator Robert Menendez’s corruption trial began its deliberations midday Friday on a raft of federal charges in what prosecutors describe as a complex and yearslong bribery conspiracy. A third-term Democrat who represents New Jersey, Mr. Menendez is accused of steering aid to Egypt, applying political pressure to preserve a friend’s business monopoly and meddling in criminal investigations in exchange for bribes of gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz. On Thursday, Mr. Menendez, 70, seated at the defense table with his lawyers, leaned back in a chair, hands clasped on his lap, as a prosecutor offered an hourslong rebuttal to frequently impassioned closing arguments by lawyers for the senator and two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, who are being tried with him. In his rebuttal argument, the prosecutor, Daniel C. Richenthal, took direct aim at a pillar of the senator’s defense strategy — an effort to shift blame to his wife, Nadine Menendez, 57.
Persons: Robert Menendez’s, Menendez, clasped, Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, Daniel C, Nadine Menendez Organizations: Benz Locations: Manhattan, New Jersey, Egypt
But he urged the jury to refocus of what he called a “clear pattern of corruption.”“The timeline tells you what happened,” he said. Afterward, Mr. Monteleoni said that the businessman, Wael Hana, and another wealthy associate began paying Ms. Menendez a generous salary. Mr. Monteleoni said that was not believable, and he presented text messages and Google search history that he said showed Mr. Menendez knew exactly what his wife was receiving. Mr. Monteleoni was expected to complete his closing argument on Tuesday morning. Mr. Menendez fumed as he left the courthouse on Monday.
Persons: Robert Menendez, ” Prosecutors, Nadine Menendez, Paul Monteleoni, , , Menendez, Nadine, Mr, Monteleoni, Wael Hana, Menendez fumed Organizations: , Robert Menendez of New, Senate Foreign Relations, Department of Agriculture, Senate Foreign Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Manhattan, New Jersey
agents raided the New Jersey home of Senator Robert Menendez and his wife, they found envelope after envelope of cash, a federal prosecutor told a jury on Monday. Cash stuffed in bags, cash stuffed in the pockets of the senator’s jackets, cash stuffed in his boots. “It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington,” Mr. Monteleoni told jurors. “It wasn’t enough for him to be entrusted by the public with the power to approve billions of dollars of U.S. military aid to foreign countries.”“No, Robert Menendez wanted all that power,” he added. “But he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife.”
Persons: F.B.I, Robert Menendez, Cash, Menendez, Paul M, Monteleoni, ” Mr, Organizations: Senate Foreign Relations Locations: New Jersey, Washington
Last September, a prominent white-collar defense lawyer met with federal prosecutors in Manhattan in a last-ditch effort to stave off an indictment against his client. In the meeting, the lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, used a PowerPoint presentation to convey explanations for certain financial payments that were under scrutiny by the government. It was a moment of great risk and potential peril for Mr. Menendez — and the effort failed. Less than two weeks later, prosecutors announced an indictment charging the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, with conspiring to accept thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for political favors. The government has made it clear that Mr. Lowell, who represented Mr. Menendez only during the investigation and not afterward, engaged in no wrongdoing.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Abbe D, Lowell, Menendez —, Nadine Menendez, , Menendez Organizations: Robert Menendez of New, U.S, Southern, of Locations: Manhattan, Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, of New York
After calling just four witnesses, lawyers for Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey rested their case late Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan federal court, setting the stage for jurors to begin deliberations in his international bribery conspiracy trial early next week. Mr. Menendez, 70, said that he decided against testifying in his own defense for two primary reasons. The government, he said, had not proved its case, and he did not want to give prosecutors an opportunity to rehash the charges twice — once on cross-examination and again in closing arguments. That was “simply not something that makes any sense to me whatsoever,” Mr. Menendez said as he left the courthouse after proceedings ended for the day.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, , ” Mr Organizations: Robert Menendez of New Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Manhattan
After seven weeks of trial, federal prosecutors rested their case on Friday against Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat accused of conspiring to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold, cash and other bribes in return for the senator’s willingness to dispense political favors at home and abroad. Defense lawyers are expected to begin calling witnesses next week in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Throughout the trial, lawyers for Mr. Menendez, who has vigorously maintained his innocence, have aggressively cross-examined a parade of government witnesses, seeking to undermine their credibility. “The government hasn’t proven its case,” Mr. Menendez said as he left the courthouse on Friday. The conclusion of the government’s case comes nine months after Mr. Menendez, his wife and several New Jersey businessmen were first charged with participating in a vast bribery conspiracy that prosecutors say began in 2018.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, Mr Organizations: New, New Jersey Democrat, Defense, Federal, Court Locations: New Jersey, Manhattan, Jersey
Senator Robert Menendez’s lawyers have cast him as a man who was duped by his dazzling wife, Nadine Menendez, and unaware of the gold bars and cash she kept in her locked bedroom closet — or the deals she made to get them. After seven weeks of trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors plan to rest their case on Friday, paving the way for the defense to begin offering evidence intended to poke holes in the government’s case. Mr. Menendez, 70, and Ms. Menendez, 57, are charged with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for the senator’s efforts to steer aid to Egypt, prop up an ally’s business monopoly and disrupt criminal investigations on behalf of friends. The senator, a Democrat, is on trial, however, without his wife. A judge postponed Ms. Menendez’s trial after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Persons: Robert Menendez’s, Nadine Menendez, Menendez, Menendez’s Organizations: Federal, Court, Democrat Locations: Manhattan, Egypt
In March 2019, an aide to Senator Robert Menendez drafted a letter that used strong language to criticize the president of Egypt and the country’s human rights record. Mr. Menendez declined to sign it. Mr. Menendez, then the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he wanted to try a less confrontational approach, the aide, Sarah Arkin, testified on Monday at the senator’s bribery trial. “We’ve been going after them for so long on human rights — have been really out there publicly criticizing them — and it hasn’t really changed anything on the ground,” Ms. Arkin, a senior staff member with the committee, said Mr. Menendez had told her. Instead, Mr. Menendez said he wanted “to be a little less publicly critical and do more private and quiet engagement,” Ms. Arkin said.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez, Sarah Arkin, “ We’ve, Ms, Arkin, Mr, , ” Ms Organizations: Senate Foreign Relations Locations: Egypt
After a month and a half of testimony from government witnesses, lawyers for Senator Robert Menendez this week are expected to begin rebutting the web of corruption charges facing New Jersey’s senior senator, once one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are likely to wrap up their case against Mr. Menendez by Wednesday. Mr. Menendez’s lawyers will then begin to call witnesses; they have said they might call as many as four dozen. Mr. Menendez, 70, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he doled out political favors to friends and foreign governments in exchange for bribes both eye-popping and mundane: hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz, Formula One race tickets, a reclining chair and an exercise machine. He is charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government and is the first senator in American history to be indicted twice in separate bribery cases — facts that have infused the proceeding with a sober, precedent-setting tone.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez Organizations: New, Wednesday, Mercedes, Benz, Formula Locations: New Jersey’s, Washington, Federal, Manhattan
The trial of Senator Robert Menendez was paused on Thursday after the judge announced that one of the senator’s co-defendants, Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer, had tested positive for Covid-19. The judge, Sidney H. Stein, said it was “the expectation and the hope of the court” that the trial could resume Monday, given revised federal Covid guidelines and depending on how quickly Mr. Daibes begins to recover. Mr. Daibes is on trial with the senator and another defendant in a sprawling bribery conspiracy case in which prosecutors say Mr. Menendez, 70, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, accepted gold, cash and a luxury car in exchange for the senator’s agreeing to dispense political favors at home and abroad. Ms. Menendez’s trial was postponed until at least August because she is being treated for breast cancer. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Fred Daibes, Sidney H, Stein, Daibes, Menendez, Nadine Menendez, Menendez’s Organizations: Disease Control Locations: New Jersey
Jose Uribe, a star government witness with a checkered past, is expected to testify on Tuesday for a third day at Senator Robert Menendez’s bribery trial as the focus of the proceeding shifts toward a series of face-to-face meetings that Mr. Uribe had with the senator. Mr. Uribe, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Mr. Menendez with a Mercedes-Benz, is likely to face hours of cross-examination by defense lawyers about at least one element that was missing from his direct testimony: any discussion with the senator of a payoff. “I never talked to Mr. Menendez about making payments for the car,” Mr. Uribe said in court on Monday. Mr. Uribe’s testimony did reveal two private meetings with the senator that were not mentioned in a federal indictment against Mr. Menendez.
Persons: Jose Uribe, Robert Menendez’s, Uribe, Menendez, Mr, Uribe’s Organizations: Benz
Jose Uribe, the businessman who has said he bribed Senator Robert Menendez in return for his help in quashing a criminal investigation involving two people close to him, testified on Monday that he had asked the senator directly for his help and that Mr. Menendez had said he would “look into it.”Mr. Uribe said that on Sept. 5, 2019, the night before Mr. Menendez met with New Jersey’s attorney general to discuss the matter, he was invited to the senator’s girlfriend’s home in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., where he and Mr. Menendez sat on a backyard patio, with the senator smoking a cigar. Mr. Menendez rang a little bell that he had on the table, calling out “mon amour” — French for “my love” — and summoning Nadine Menendez, the woman he married the next year. Mr. Uribe said she brought him a piece of paper and went back into the house. At the senator’s request, Mr. Uribe wrote down the names of two friends and two companies he believed were under investigation. Mr. Menendez then took the paper, folded it and placed it in his pants pocket.
Persons: Jose Uribe, Robert Menendez, Menendez, Mr, Uribe, , Nadine Menendez Organizations: New Locations: quashing, Englewood Cliffs, N.J
New Jersey’s former attorney general, Gurbir S. Grewal, took the stand on Thursday afternoon in Senator Robert Menendez’s bribery trial, becoming the most prominent official to testify against the senator, a fellow Democrat. Mr. Grewal was expected to offer details about telephone calls from Mr. Menendez and a brief meeting the two had in September 2019 in the senator’s office in Newark. Being called as a witness in a criminal trial was an unusual role for Mr. Grewal, a former federal prosecutor who now leads the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division. Mr. Menendez turned to look directly at Mr. Grewal as he walked slowly to the stand. Mr. Uribe, who was charged last year in the alleged bribery conspiracy, pleaded guilty in March and is now cooperating with prosecutors.
Persons: Gurbir S, Grewal, Robert Menendez’s, Menendez, Mr, Jose Uribe, Uribe’s, Uribe Organizations: U.S . Securities, Exchange, Prosecutors Locations: Newark
The man and the woman arrived at the Washington steakhouse one evening in May 2019 and took a table on the patio, near where five diners already were seated and seemed to be enjoying themselves. But there was something else that stood out: Among the five were Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey and his future wife, Nadine Menendez. The couple who had arrived late appeared to be on a date. But in reality, court testimony on Tuesday showed, he was photographing the people behind her, seated at the senator’s table. surveillance team, and they had deliberately sat near Mr. Menendez and his group, which also included an Egyptian government official.
Persons: Robert Menendez, Nadine Menendez, Menendez Organizations: Washington, Jackets, Robert Menendez of New, Mr Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey
In May 2019, a top official in the U.S. Department of Agriculture got a call on his cellphone from Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. The conversation was brief, the senator was curt, and the message was clear: “Stop interfering with my constituent.”Ted A. McKinney, then the under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, testified about the exchange on Friday during the third week of Mr. Menendez’s bribery trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan. It was the first time that jurors had heard directly from a witness who attributed conduct to the senator that is central to the government’s claim in an indictment that alleges a sprawling bribery conspiracy: that Mr. Menendez was willing to flex his political muscle to win favorable treatment for allies.
Persons: Robert Menendez, curt, ” Ted A, McKinney, Menendez Organizations: U.S . Department of Agriculture, Robert Menendez of New, Federal, Court Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Manhattan
On Jan. 31, 2018, the day Senator Robert Menendez was formally cleared of bribery charges that had dogged him for nearly three years in New Jersey, he got a text from Nadine Arslanian, a woman he would soon begin to date and later marry. “Now re-election!!! !” Ms. Arslanian wrote. “Yes!” Mr. Menendez replied before asking, “Are you around on Friday?”She was. After a dinner date at a New Jersey restaurant, it was Ms. Arslanian’s turn to send a text with a question: “What is your international position?”Mr. Menendez, 70, responded that he was the “ranking member” on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — “which means senior Democrat.”
Persons: Robert Menendez, Nadine Arslanian, , Arslanian, Mr, Menendez, Arslanian’s, Organizations: Senate Foreign Relations Locations: New Jersey
In a potential setback for the government, a federal judge on Friday blocked the introduction of certain evidence that prosecutors wanted to use to support their case that Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey accepted bribes in exchange for approving billions of dollars in aid to Egypt. The judge’s order, which comes two weeks into Mr. Menendez’s corruption trial in Manhattan, could undermine prosecutors’ ability to prove certain elements of the multifaceted bribery charges against the senator. The ruling rests on protections afforded to members of Congress under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which bars the government from citing specific legislative actions in seeking to prove a federal lawmaker committed a crime. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has said it intended to sidestep discussion of official legislative acts and focus instead on promises it says preceded Mr. Menendez’s votes and congressional actions.
Persons: Robert Menendez Organizations: Robert Menendez of New, Southern, of Locations: Robert Menendez of, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Egypt, Manhattan, U.S, of New York
Senator Robert Menendez’s soon-to-be wife dropped a lot of names during a 2019 meeting she held with a lawyer who later paid off the delinquent mortgage on her Englewood Cliffs, N.J., home, saving it from foreclosure. But Mr. Menendez’s name was not one of them, the lawyer, John Moldovan, testified on Tuesday in the second week of the senator’s federal bribery trial in Manhattan. Mr. Moldovan said he was later instructed by his boss, Wael Hana, the owner of a New Jersey-based halal meat certification company, to pay $23,568.54 to a lender that held the mortgage on the home owned by Nadine Menendez, who married the senator in 2020. Mr. Hana never brought up the senator’s name either, Mr. Moldovan testified. “Never mentioned his name once to me,” Mr. Moldovan said during cross-examination by Mr. Menendez’s lawyer, Avi Weitzman.
Persons: Robert Menendez’s, John Moldovan, Moldovan, Wael Hana, Nadine Menendez, Hana, , ” Mr, Menendez’s, Avi Weitzman Locations: Englewood, N.J, Manhattan, New Jersey
Senator Robert Menendez’s bribery trial got underway this week in a Manhattan courtroom eight months after he was first indicted on corruption charges. The government has brought a complicated set of accusations against Mr. Menendez, 70. “This case is about a public official who put greed first,” said Lara Pomerantz, an assistant U.S. attorney. “A public official who put his own interests above his duty to the people. Who put his power up for sale.”Two businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, are on trial with Mr. Menendez, accused of plying him with bribes.
Persons: Robert Menendez’s, Menendez, , Lara Pomerantz, , Who, Fred Daibes, Wael Hana, Nadine Menendez Locations: Manhattan, Jersey, Egypt, Qatar, New Jersey, U.S
Jury selection for Senator Robert Menendez’s corruption trial starts on Monday in a federal courthouse in Manhattan, a 20-mile drive from Mr. Menendez’s home in northern New Jersey, where for decades he has been a well-known Democratic political leader. His efforts to move the trial to his home turf failed. Jurors picked to decide the case will be from Manhattan, the Bronx or one of several New York counties north of the city. Mr. Menendez, 70, will be tried with two New Jersey businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana. His wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, was also charged in the bribery scheme but will be tried separately, in July.
Persons: Robert Menendez’s, Menendez’s, Menendez, Fred Daibes, Wael Hana, Nadine Menendez Organizations: Democratic, Prosecutors, U.S, Southern, of Locations: Manhattan, New Jersey, Bronx, New York, of New York, Qatari, Jersey
Who Are Key Players in the Menendez Case?
  + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Tracey Tully | Benjamin Weiser | ) www.nytimes.com   time to read: +7 min
Who Are Key Players in the Menendez Case? Mr. Menendez goes to trial on May 13 with two of the businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana. Fred Daibes New Jersey Real Estate Developer Mr. Daibes is accused of giving Mr. Menendez furniture, gold and cash. Nadine Menendez Mr. Menendez’s Wife Ms. Menendez served as a go-between for Mr. Menendez, Egyptian intelligence officials and men who were seeking political favors from the senator, according to the indictment. Defense LawyersAdam Fee Lawyer for Robert Menendez He previously spent five years as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District — the same office prosecuting Mr. Menendez.
Persons: Menendez, Robert Menendez, Nadine Menendez, Mr, Fred Daibes, Wael Hana, Menendez's, Daibes, Nadine Menendez Mr, Menendez’s, Ms, Jose Uribe, Uribe, Uribe's, Sidney H, Stein, Bill Clinton, Jennifer Shah, Hassan Nemazee, Damian Williams, Williams, President Biden, Sam Bankman, Fried, Juan Orlando Hernández, Christina Clark, Clark, Charles McGonigal, Catherine Ghosh, Eli Mark, Paul Monteleoni, Robert Hadden, Lara Pomerantz, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Norman Seabrook, Daniel Richenthal, Sheldon Silver, Michael Avenatti, Adam Fee, Fee, Avi Weitzman, Lawrence Lustberg Organizations: Democrat, Robert Menendez New Jersey, Senate Foreign Relations, Jersey Real, EG, Prosecutors, United, Jose Uribe Former New, Benz, U.S, Southern, of, Democratic, Attorney, Southern District of, ex, Public, New, New York City Housing Authority, Justice Department, Southern District’s, New York State Assembly, Nike . Defense, Southern District Locations: New Jersey, Manhattan, Jersey, Egypt, Qatar, United States, Jose Uribe Former New Jersey, of New York, Southern District, Southern District of New York, Russian, New York City, Brooklyn, Columbia, New York, U.S, California
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
When Senator Robert Menendez was charged last year with corruption after investigators found $486,000 in cash stashed around his house in New Jersey, he offered a simple, “old-fashioned” explanation: It had been his custom to withdraw cash from a personal savings account to keep at home, a habit he learned from his Cuban immigrant parents. But federal prosecutors, in papers filed late Friday, presented fresh details that they suggested undercut Mr. Menendez’s claim. Some of the cash was wrapped in bands showing it had been withdrawn, at least $10,000 at a time, from a bank where Mr. Menendez and his wife “had no known depository account.” This, prosecutors said, indicated “that the money had been provided to them by another person.”
Persons: Robert Menendez, Menendez’s, Menendez, , Locations: New Jersey
Total: 25