New York – Prosecutors in the Senate. Bob Menendez the bribery trial showed jurors hundreds of texts, emails and phone calls over two days became his friend’s wife Before the desperate financial situation, New Jersey businessmen came to the rescue.
Prosecutors took a second day of testimony Wednesday from an FBI agent as they tried to show Menendez, 70, conspired with three businessmen and his wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, in a bribery scheme that enriched the couple with gold bars. , hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a luxury car.
Menendez and two businessmen have pleaded not guilty, while a third has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to testify. The trial of Nadine Menendez, who was diagnosed with breast cancer, has been postponed until July.
Through a lengthy presentation of communications expected to last until Thursday, prosecutors sought to trace the relationship between Menendez and a woman he began dating in early 2018, then identified as Nadine Arslanyan.
Prosecutors say the trajectory of the relationship coincided with a bribery scheme in which the senator helped businessman and defendant Wael Hana win an exclusive contract with Egypt to certify that all meat exported from the United States meets religious requirements, while helping two others. by helping other business people achieve favorable results in their financial and New Jersey criminal cases.
Jurors saw some text messages on Wednesday in which Menendez and Arslanian exchanged loving sentiments with kisses or heart emojis. Arslanyan told the senator in a message: “You can never lose me, because I will never let go.”
According to other reports, in the summer of 2019, Arslanyan faced the threat of losing his house. Englewood Cliffs, New Jerseyafter missing nearly $20,000 in mortgage payments.
Hana provided the money to save the house Menendez moved into after marrying Arslanyan in 2020. Prosecutors say the money was part of a bribe the couple received when the senator helped Hana’s company secure a monopoly on certifying meat exports to Egypt.
Defense attorneys say Menendez did nothing out of the ordinary for politicians to do for voters. The 13 gold bars found in a 2022 FBI home raid are said to belong to Nadine Menendez, and the $480,000 stuffed in jackets, boxes and a safe is because the senator was traumatized by the loss of her family’s fortune. before birth.
Menendez also said through his lawyers that his wife kept him in the dark about financial problems and that he did nothing illegal.
Among other charges, Menendez is accused of acting as an Egyptian foreign agent. After his arrest in the fall, he was forced to step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.