U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), arrives at Federal Courtroom, for his bribery trial in link with an alleged corrupt relationship with a few New Jersey businessmen, in New York Town, U.S., June 11, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Protection lawyers on Tuesday scrutinized the trustworthiness of the star witness in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., after he testified that he bribed the embattled lawmaker and his spouse.
The witness, Jose Uribe, was 1 of a few New Jersey businessmen who had been at first billed in the circumstance alongside with Menendez and his spouse, Nadine Menendez.
Uribe flipped in early March, pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in hopes of keeping away from prison when he is sentenced for his crimes, which carry a maximum of 95 decades in jail.
In his direct testimony on the witness stand in New York federal court, Uribe explained that in 2019 he paid for a Mercedes-Benz convertible for Nadine, who was then Menendez’s girlfriend, in exchange for the senator’s impact.
Prosecutors have accused Menendez of attempting to interfere in New Jersey state prison investigations similar to Uribe’s associates.
“That was my assure to her so she could get the vehicle and comply with the offer,” Uribe testified Monday.
On cross-assessment Tuesday, an attorney for Menendez co-defendant Wael Hana sought to undermine Uribe’s testimony, NBC Information noted.
The attorney, Ricardo Solano, asked Uribe if it was “fair to say when in difficulty, you lie to get absent with it?”
Uribe responded, “I have lied in the past,” incorporating he has taken what he sees as “needed actions to shield my household.”
Solano drilled down: “Does that consist of lying?”
Uribe reported that it did. “I have in the past, to shield my household,” he stated.
Uribe on March 1 pleaded guilty to 7 counts, like conspiracy to commit bribery, genuine solutions fraud, and obstruction of justice.
The senior U.S. senator, 70, and his spouse are billed with illegally accepting dollars, gold bars and other gifts really worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in trade for official acts.
Menendez, Hana and Fred Daibes, an additional New Jersey businessman, are remaining tried using alongside one another in a federal courthouse in decrease Manhattan. Nadine Menendez’s trial was postponed until finally July for health-related explanations the senator exposed for the duration of the trial that his wife is struggling from breast cancer.
Menendez’s lawyers have tried out to blame Nadine Menendez, declaring she held the senator “sidelined” about her funds troubles. His legal professional Avi Weitzman famous in his opening assertion that gold bars were located in “Nadine’s closet.”
Menendez, who has been denounced by some of his Democratic colleagues, has submitted to operate for reelection as an independent applicant.
