US senator Bob Menendez convicted of bribery charges

The US senator Bob Menendez has been convicted of accepting bribes of cash, gold and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen.

The jury’s verdict against the New Jersey Democrat was still being read on Tuesday at a federal courthouse in New York City.

Over a nine-week trial, prosecutors said that Menendez abused the power of his office to protect allies from criminal investigations and enrich associates, including his wife, through acts that included meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials and helping that country access millions of dollars in US military aid.

Menendez, 70, did not testify but insisted publicly he was only doing his job as the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee. He said gold bars found in his New Jersey home by the FBI belonged to his wife.

The conviction comes four months before election day and potentially dooms any hope Menendez had of campaigning for re-election as an independent candidate.

The senator was on trial with two New Jersey businessmen. All three pleaded not guilty.

Another businessman pleaded guilty before trial and testified against Menendez and the other defendants.

Menendez’s wife, Nadine, also was charged, although her trial has been postponed while she recovers from breast cancer surgery.

In a 2022 raid on the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home where Menendez lived with Nadine, FBI agents confiscated gold bars worth nearly $150,000 and over $480,000 in cash, some of it stuffed into boots and jackets emblazoned with the senator’s name.

Menendez expressed some hope as he left the courthouse on Monday that the jury was carefully reviewing the evidence in its deliberations. In two separate notes, the jury had posed questions about the charges, including asking in one instance if unanimity was required to acquit “on a single count”.

“It’s obvious that the government’s case is not as simple as they made it to be,” Menendez said before repeating himself. “It’s not as simple as they made it to be. The jury’s finding that out.”

During closing arguments last week, lawyers spent over 15 hours urging jurors to carefully study the evidence.

Prosecutors cited numerous instances when they said Menendez helped the businessmen. And they argued that his efforts to speed $99m in helicopter ammunition to Egypt, along with cozy communications with top Egyptian officials, showed he was serving Egypt’s interests as an agent.

Lawyers for Menendez insisted the senator never accepted bribes and that actions he took to benefit the businessmen were the kinds of tasks expected of a public official. They said he was simply carrying out foreign responsibilities expected in his role as Senate foreign relations chairman, a post he was forced to relinquish after charges were brought.

Menendez announced in May that he planned to run for re-election this year as an independent.