New York
CNN
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Steaks, cigars, booze, diplomats and buddies – they have been all on the menu at Sen. Bob Menendez’s frequent dinners at Morton’s The Steakhouse in Washington DC, in line with two FBI investigators who testified Tuesday within the New Jersey Democrat’s federal corruption trial.
FBI investigative specialist Terry Williams Thompson, who eavesdropped on one of many meals on Might 21, 2019, instructed the court docket she heard a lady ask one other unidentified diner, “What else can the love of my life do for you?”
Whereas it wasn’t instantly clear to whom the query was directed, the implication was clear: Nadine Menendez, the senator’s spouse, was the particular person asking. All through the trial, she has been heard over voicemail and seen in textual content messages addressing her husband with comparable language.
Bob and Nadine Menendez, together with New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are accused of participating in a bribery scheme and appearing as overseas brokers for the Egyptian authorities. All 4 have pleaded not responsible. Nadine Menendez will likely be tried individually this summer season.
The trial in New York federal court docket is in its fourth week, and prosecutors have began to piece collectively completely different threads of the complicated bribery scheme they’ve alleged. The testimony about FBI surveillance provides one other dimension to the prosecution’s case, which additionally includes gold bars seized from the Menendez home, Nadine Menendez’s textual content messages and different testimony.
As he left court docket Tuesday, Bob Menendez instructed CNN in an interview that he feels assured his protection attorneys are “exhibiting the reality” by discrediting prosecution witnesses by way of cross-examination.
Earlier than the jury was seated Tuesday, Adam Price, one in all Bob Menendez’s attorneys, argued that prosecutors have been unfairly trying to color the Might 2019 dinner as one thing malign – as co-conspirators plotting their crimes. Based on Price, the senator was an everyday on the steakhouse, going there 250 nights out of the yr.
“There’s nothing uncommon about having dinner there with a diplomat or with a pal,” Price instructed Choose Sidney Stein.
Prosecutors, in flip, argued that simply because the senator had different dinners that weren’t conspiratorial or prison in nature, doesn’t imply that some didn’t match that invoice.
There have been a number of FBI groups at Morton’s that night time who have been looking for different topics at dinner with the senator.
The federal government’s first witness on Tuesday, Chase Hunter Mills, now an FBI particular agent, testified that he noticed two males and one girl, with blonde hair and sporting a tan fur overcoat, enter Morton’s steakhouse on the night time in query.
“The proximity and the physique language would lead me to consider they have been pleasant collectively,” he mentioned.
Late Tuesday night time, the US lawyer’s workplace for the Southern District of New York launched video and nonetheless footage documenting the Morton’s steakhouse dinner that have been introduced as proof earlier within the day.
The images confirmed Bob and Nadine Menendez and alleged co-conspirator Hana seated on the desk the FBI group was requested to look at.
Thompson testified earlier that she was working together with her companion, Damian Bradland, to surveil a person from New York who can be in Washington that night time.
They developed a canopy story as a married couple out on a dinner date.
“It seemed pure,” Thompson mentioned. “As a result of Morton’s is a high-end restaurant, we made positive we dressed the half.”
Thompson instructed the court docket they discovered the senator and others eating within the restaurant’s patio space, the place there have been just a few folks being served. The investigators obtained themselves a desk “two arm’s size away,” she mentioned, from the group they have been observing.
On the dinner desk, Thompson noticed the senator pour a bottle of wine, and there have been additionally cigarettes and cigars, she testified.
“They seemed to be getting alongside simply superb,” she mentioned. “Based mostly on the laughter and what we heard, it made me suppose they have been getting alongside.”
“We dined similar to them,” Thompson mentioned. Bradland took images of her with the topics’ desk within the background, utilizing their married couple cowl to as an alternative doc their surveillance.
They took no audio surveillance, nonetheless, and he or she jotted notes down to recollect what they heard, though not a direct transcript, she testified.
Requested by Price in the event that they noticed something that recommended the topics of the surveillance have been attempting to keep away from being photographed or noticed, each Mills and Thompson mentioned they didn’t.
This story has been up to date with extra info.