Jury seated, Menendez trial underway

opening arguments began today in the federal corruption trial of us Senator Bob Menendez after the jury selection process officially wrapped up this morning with a dozen jurors and six alternates sworn in to begin weighing the charges brought against the senator and his codefendants Menendez and his wife are accused of accepting lavish gifts from three New Jersey businessmen including hundreds of thousands in cash gold bars and a luxury car in exchange prosecutors say for the Senators willingness to use his official position to benefit those men and the governments of Egypt and cter the jury which includes Six Women and six men was chosen over the course of a three-day vetting process this is the second Federal bribery case against Menendez in a decade but the powerful third-term Democrat has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and today his defense team laid out how they plan to prove it cameras aren't allowed inside the federal courthouse in Manhattan but our senior cour respondent Brenda Flanigan was and she joins me now from outside with the latest on opening statements Hey Bren good to see you uh long day how did the prosecution lay out their case Bri they took advantage of this opening argument to to frame their entire strategy for the jury they painted Bob Menendez as a corrupt government official they said that he put greed over his duty to the public service that he used his power his position as a a member of the US Senate essentially to keep his wife happy and to put his power up for sale they said that they're going to be able to point to quidd Pro quos of this for that where he did something in exchange for a goal bar or for cash and they said that they've got the proof they've got the text messages and that they're going to be able to make this case and they also say that his wife naen acted as a go between that she essentially would bring Communications back and forth and would carry bribes back and forth so it it looks as if the prosecution sees them working together as a couple and that's not exactly the way the defense sees it yeah I mean naen Menendez has been expected to be a key figure in this case both for the prosecution and defense so how did menendez's attorneys counter that they say that naen is the love of Bob menendez's life that when he was bold over that he sang to her in front of the Taj Mahal when he got down on one knee and handed her her an engagement ring but they also say that Bob Mendez had no idea that there were gold bars locked in nen's bedroom closet they say that they thought any gold that she had was from her family and that she essentially needed the money because she was behind on her mortgage and had other debts and that she went to old friends of hers the codefendants in this case New Jersey businessman and she was the one who got this entire racket organized alleged racket organized uh that she put into motion these quidd Pro quos uh and that she essentially had Bob so blindsided by love I guess that he wasn't able to figure out what was going on uh they even put up a map of where's Waldo you know with the crowd you have to find Waldo in the crowd they told the jury when the prosecution talks to you about all of this gold and all of this cash we want you to ask where's Bob because all of the text messages and emails they involve naen they do not involve Bob mandez they say he is innocent and that they will prove it but how did they explain or did they attempt to explain his International dealings bran with the government's Egypt and cutter because of course we can't forget that that charge of acting as an unregistered foreign agent is a grave charge against him they say that he was doing official duties that this was nothing out of the ordinary this is something that a US senator on the Foreign Relations Committee will do essentially just his normal regular doing his job Bob doing his job Bob doing his job brend Flanigan for us in Manhattan Brenda thanks great work [Music]

Channel: NJ Spotlight News

Views: 620

Keywords: Avi Weitzman, Bob Menendez, Lara Pomerantz, Menendez trial, NJ corruption, Nadine Menendez, bob menendez trial, gold bars, jurors, jury selection, sen. bob menendez

Id: R4b8UCUvgfc

Length: 4min 42sec (282 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2024