Senator Robert Menendez was charged with corruption after investigators found $486,000 in cash stashed around his house in New Jersey. Menendez claimed that he withdrew cash from a personal savings account to keep at home, a habit he learned from his Cuban immigrant parents. However, federal prosecutors presented new details that suggested the money had been provided to him by another person, not withdrawn from his account in $10,000 increments.
Recently, Menendez’s lawyers had asked a judge to exclude the cash discovered in his home as evidence for his upcoming trial in Manhattan. Prosecutors responded by filing papers that indicated the money found in Menendez’s home was part of a bribery scheme. Gold bars and other valuable items were also discovered in the couple’s house in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., suggesting a lifestyle above their means funded by bribes.
Menendez and his wife Nadine are accused of accepting bribes in exchange for the senator’s political influence to disrupt criminal investigations in New Jersey and help the governments of Egypt and Qatar. The couple, along with two New Jersey businessmen, have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their trial is set to begin in May in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Prosecutors have stated that envelopes of cash found in Menendez’s house bore the fingerprints or DNA of one of the businessmen charged in the case, and gold bars had also been connected to them. Menendez has refused to resign and plans to run for re-election in November as an independent if he is exonerated.
The judge ruled that Menendez’s wife will be tried separately due to a newly diagnosed medical condition that requires surgery and a potentially lengthy recovery. She is scheduled to go on trial in July. Menendez has attributed the funds found in their home to a long-standing habit of withdrawing cash from his personal savings account for emergencies, stemming from his family’s history facing confiscation in Cuba.
In an interview, Menendez revealed that he had withdrawn $400 in cash every week for three decades as part of his family’s tradition. Despite the ongoing legal battle, Menendez maintains his innocence and is determined to clear his name. The upcoming trial will shed more light on the allegations of bribery and corruption against the senator and his associates.
