A jury is resuming deliberations Monday within the bribery case introduced in opposition to Nadine Menendez after a prosecutor informed a jury that she was a “critical participant” in a five-year fraud together with her husband, former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.
The jury started contemplating the fees in opposition to the 58-year-old Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, resident in mid-afternoon on Friday in Manhattan federal courtroom. Jurors went house almost two hours later with out reaching a verdict.
Bob Menendez, 71, a New Jersey Democrat, is to report back to jail in June to start an 11-year sentence. He stepped down from his Senate publish after his conviction final yr.
Throughout a closing argument Thursday, Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, Barry Coburn, argued that the proof was inadequate to lead to a conviction.
In a rebuttal argument on Friday morning, Assistant U.S. Legal professional Daniel Richenthal urged the jury to convict Nadine Menendez, saying they must consider that over $450,000 in money and gold bars price a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} extra that had been discovered by the FBI of their house had been presents relatively than bribes.
Prosecutors stated Nadine Menendez was a companion in her husband’s crimes, serving to to gather payoffs from three New Jersey businessmen in a wide-ranging scheme. The protection argued among the gold she acquired was not bribes, however relatively had been handed down from her household or had been presents from businessmen who had been longtime pals. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst stories.
“They weren’t gifts,” he stated. “They were bribes.”
He known as the proof in opposition to her “consistent and overwhelming” and described her as an “active participant, a critical participant” within the bribery scheme.
Born in Lebanon of Armenian descent, Nadine Menendez started courting the senator in early 2018 when she was often known as Nadine Arslanian. Prosecutors stated she quickly joined a bribery scheme involving three New Jersey businessmen. The couple was married within the fall of 2020.
Bob Menendez, whose Senate profession started in 2006, carried out the bribery scheme whereas he held highly effective positions on the influential Senate International Relations Committee.
He was compelled from the committee after he was charged within the case.
The trial for Nadine Menendez was postponed final yr after she was recognized with breast most cancers and required surgical procedure.
