Jury selection begins on Monday in the second federal corruption trial of New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez. Menendez and his wife, Nadine, are charged with accepting bribes from three affluent businessmen. The businessmen were charged alongside the Democrat, although one of them, Jose Uribe, had already pleaded guilty. He will testify against Menendez and the other two businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana.
Prosecutors say Menendez meddled in criminal investigations to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar. He is alleged to have used his influence to lobby the U.S. government and interfere in criminal investigations on behalf of Uribe, Daibes, Hana, and the foreign governments and interests tied to them.
Menendez was previously indicted for bribery, fraud, and other offenses in 2015, related to claims he used his position to lobby the Dominican government on behalf of a donor. Jurors failed to agree on any of the charges, resulting in a mistrial, though the Democrat was still found to have “violated Senate Rules, federal law, and applicable standards of conduct” by the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
Nevertheless, the Democratic Party did not expel him, and he retained the chairmanship of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He lost this after the latest round of indictments but remains a committee member. He bragged in November that his intelligence clearance had not been revoked despite the fact he is being tried as a foreign agent.
Menendez has said he will not run for reelection as a Democrat in November — although he may run as an independent, endangering the party’s slim Senate majority.
