New Jersey Senator Bob Mendendez found guilty on all counts in alleged bribery scheme
A Manhattan jury has found Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., guilty on all counts Tuesday following two months of trial and a little over two days of deliberation.
Menendez, 70, had been charged with accepting gifts in exchange for political favors. An FBI raid in 2022 uncovered nearly $150,000 worth of gold bars and more than $480,000 in cash, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors accused the senator of using his office to protect the business interests of his corrupt donors, as well as disrupt efforts to investigate them and their relations with the government of Egypt.
At trial, lawyers for Menendez, who pleaded not guilty, argued that the senator's wife, Nadine Menendez, was to blame for accepting gifts, which they argued were kept in her closet. She has been charged separately, although on Tuesday the federal judge presiding over her case announced that the trial would be delayed indefinitely, NBC News reported.
Menendez's previous federal bribery trial, in 2017, ended with a deadlocked jury. At the time, he was accused of providing political favors for a donor who had showered him with gifts.
The senator, who previously insisted he would run for reelection this fall as an independent, faces the prospect of years behind bars.
