CNN
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For greater than 4 weeks, Sen. Bob Menendez has been a principally peripheral determine at his bribery and corruption trial. On Monday, at federal courtroom in Decrease Manhattan, the New Jersey Democrat grew to become the principle character.
Prosecutors’ star witness, businessman Jose Uribe, instructed the jury for the primary time that Menendez helped drive the broader conspiracy that ensnared the senator; his spouse, Nadine Menendez; and two co-defendants.
In his testimony, Uribe, who pleaded guilty earlier than the trial started and is cooperating with prosecutors, described Menendez as a Godfather-like character who lorded his energy over others and, by his deeds and demeanor, appeared to many as an omnipotent determine with huge affect in all walks of life.
Menendez, in Uribe’s telling, not often requested any questions and supplied solely a blinkered view into his plans and actions. However months after allegedly delivering on the important thing items of the bribery scheme, Menendez, throughout a 2020 dinner with Uribe, sat again, his fingers crossed over his abdomen, and reminded the businessman of all he’d accomplished.
“I saved your a** twice. Not as soon as, however twice,” Menendez instructed him in Spanish, Uribe testified.
Nadine and her grownup daughter, who have been additionally on the dinner, had simply excused themselves to make use of the lavatory. Earlier than they returned, the senator bragged that it had not been troublesome work, however Uribe stated his physique language instructed that “he was proud and assured that he bought this accomplished.”
Uribe, who first took the stand on Friday, described a sequence of conferences with Bob and Nadine Menendez as he sought the senator’s assist in quashing the prosecution of an affiliate and a state investigation that he feared would finally lead again to his companies and the shut pals who nominally ran them. These issues, Uribe stated, led him to leverage his relationship with Nadine Menendez – most notably the Mercedes-Benz convertible he bought for her – into audiences with the senator and, ultimately, the interventions that led to the Menendezes being charged with conspiring to accept gold bars, bricks of cash and a swishy car in trade for an assortment of political and authorized favors. (Nadine Menendez, who’s being handled for breast most cancers, is being tried individually, seemingly in July.)
Legal professionals for Bob Menendez have sought to painting him as an afterthought within the matter. In their opening arguments, they urged the jury to contemplate the query “The place’s Bob?” – asserting that he was both unaware or not concerned within the machinations alleged by prosecutors. It was his then-girlfriend Nadine driving the bus, they stated, with the senator evincing solely a partial, passive consciousness of her actions.
Uribe instructed a special story.
In a single assembly on the patio in Nadine’s yard in September 2019, the night time earlier than Menendez met with New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, Uribe stated the senator requested him to jot down down the names of the individuals and companies on the coronary heart of Uribe’s “worries.”
In Uribe’s telling, after a quick chat, Menendez known as out “mon amour” to Nadine, who was inside the house, whereas ringing a bit bell arrange on their yard desk. Nadine emerged with paper and disappeared again inside earlier than Uribe started to jot down.
The senator didn’t provide a lot data in return, Uribe stated. The subsequent morning, Uribe texted Nadine – based on telephone data – thanking her “for all the pieces you do for me” and saying he was “praying at present’s assembly is in GOD’s hand.” Uribe stated he didn’t know, even then, with whom Menendez can be sitting down.
Hours later, although, he obtained one other message from Nadine, this time asking him to fulfill the senator at Menendez’s New Jersey house constructing. (The couple was not but married and stored separate residences.) Uribe recalled coming into to see Menendez chatting within the foyer with a receptionist. The 2 then walked towards a quieter nook and started to talk.
“The factor you requested me about, there doesn’t appear to be something there,” Menendez stated, based on Uribe, who took it to imply that, whereas nothing was formally settled, he ought to now not be involved a few probe into his companies or associates.
Uribe stated he left optimistic however unsettled. He had come via for Nadine, shopping for her a brand new automotive after she had totaled her old one in a fatal accident – a element that has not been disclosed to the jury – and was determined for her to assist him “cease and kill” his looming authorized troubles.
“Peace,” as Uribe described it, got here in time. About eight weeks later, he obtained a telephone name at his house from a 202 space code – from Washington, DC. Menendez was on the opposite line, Uribe stated, and instructed him the excellent news.
“That factor you requested me about, there’s nothing there,” Menendez instructed him. “I offer you your ‘peace.’”
Uribe grew to become emotional as he spoke concerning the name. His work had come good. His fears have been vanquished – all thanks, he stated, to Bob Menendez. He texted Nadine, “I bought a name and I’m a really comfortable particular person.”
“GOD bless you and him for ever,” she replied.
Days later, Uribe and an affiliate met with the couple at an area restaurant. Prosecutors confirmed the courtroom an image of the foursome smiling extensively with champagne glasses raised – the bubbly had been despatched to their desk by different diners. One trigger for celebration, Uribe stated, went unstated.
As a substitute, they toasted the engagement of Nadine and Bob, who would get married in 2020.
“It was the correct place to be that day,” an emotional Uribe instructed the courtroom.
Their gatherings slowed when the Covid-19 pandemic hit a number of months later. The dinner when Menendez crowed about taking good care of Uribe wouldn’t occur till August 2020, after they met to eat exterior.
Almost two years would then cross with Uribe holding in contact with the Menendezes as he tried to finagle a brand new insurance coverage dealer’s license. His first one had been voided as a part of a separate legal probe years earlier. Not a lot got here of these efforts, he stated Monday, other than a dead-end introduction.
Uribe stated he realized concerning the investigation that finally led him to plead responsible and testify in opposition to the senator in June 2022, when FBI brokers turned up at his house, took his cellphone and handed him “subpoenas” for assorted paperwork and data largely associated to his funds on Nadine Menendez’s Mercedes.
Nadine Menendez and Uribe would meet yet one more time – at a Marriott lodge bar in New Jersey, the identical place Uribe and two associates first hatched the plan on the providing of Wael Hana. The Egyptian American businessman – a co-defendant on this case – instructed them he might parlay his personal friendship with Nadine Menendez into help from the senator. It could, Hana allegedly stated, value between $200,000 and $250,000.
Throughout their 2022 chat, Nadine Menendez and Uribe shared notes on the federal probe. She requested him, he stated, what he deliberate to inform the FBI concerning the automotive funds. Uribe instructed her he deliberate to say he was serving to a pal and anticipated to be repaid.
Nadine Menendez authorized of the plan, he stated. The funds can be retconned as a mortgage. She mailed his lawyer a test for $21,000, significantly lower than what he had spent on the Mercedes.
How, prosecutor Lara Pomerantz requested, did she arrive at that determine?
“No thought,” Uribe stated.
It was the final time they spoke.