NJ voters need Sen. Bob Menendez's federal indictment to go to trial. This is why | Kelly

These are tough days for Bob Menendez, the embattled Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey who is trying to keep his job while fighting off federal corruption charges.

The litany of pain is long.

It starts with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat. Murphy wants Menendez to quit. So do more than half of the other Democrats in the Senate and most of the Republicans. there too, along with a hefty number of New Jersey officials.

Then, there’s Murphy’s wife, Tammy Murphy. Just under two months after her husband called for Menendez to step down — and as many New Jersey county Democratic chairs jumped on the anti-Menendez train — Tammy Murphy, who has zero experience as an elected official but a hefty bank account, stepped forward and announced that she wants to run for Menendez’s Senate seat.

How convenient. In the rough world of politics, some critics see Tammy Murphy as just another wealthy, inexperienced New Jersey finance executive trying to buy her way into political office. Just like her husband.

Fetterman's Santos video equates to trash talk

To make matters worse, Menendez’s Democratic, hoodie-wearing colleague from Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, emerged as a vocal critic, barely missing a chance to demand Menendez’s resignation.

After yet another call during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” for Menendez to quit, Fetterman this week paid disgraced and dismissed Republican Rep. George Santos to chide Menendez in a 24-second troll video on the Cameo digital platform that features customized messages by celebrities.

In the rough world of politics, this is the crude equivalent of trash talk. Menendez countered with his own trash talk, referring to Fetterman as "Mister Clickbait" when confronted by reporters in a U.S. Capitol hallway and suggesting that Fetterman's campaign funds were used to "enrich George Santos."

After he was booted from the House on Dec. 1, Santos signed on with Cameo, where he is reportedly charging as much as $200 each for customized messages.

“Stay strong. Merry Christmas,” a smiling Santos said in the video, referring to Menendez as “Bobby.”

Later, Fetterman explained in a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he “thought my ethically-challenged colleague” — Menendez — “could use some encouragement given his substantial legal problems. So I approached a seasoned expert on the matter to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice.”

This is bad news. But it’s not nearly as challenging as two other matters now looming large for Menendez. Indeed, both matters may turn out to be far more consequential than anything Phil and Tammy Murphy or John Fetterman or “The View” or even George Santos can concoct.

Just before Thanksgiving, Menendez ditched his longtime defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell.

It needs to be said here that Lowell is a master at finding ways to get famous people off the legal hook. Lowell’s list of clients ranges from former President Bill Clinton to Jared Kushner and, yes, Menendez. In 2017, in federal court in Newark, Menendez successfully escaped federal corruption charges thanks to Lowell, who managed to convince most members of a jury that taking all kinds of trips on a private jet and campaign cash in return for favors for a wealthy physician was not really corrupt.

The judge declared a mistrial when jurors couldn’t reach a verdict. Federal prosecutors later decided not to retry the case.

Now Lowell and his team of attorneys are gone, replaced by alleged tough-guy lawyer Robert Luskin and his Washington-based team.

Luskin is no stranger to stepping in and coming to the aid of scandal-crossed public figures. Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong hired him. So did Republican strategist Karl Rove, who was accused of playing a role in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Just as Luskin signed on to his new role, he was greeted with what may turn out to be the most distressing news facing Menendez.

On Dec. 4, federal prosecutors in New York were required to turn over to defense attorneys the bulk of their evidence in their multi-pronged bribery and extortion indictment that charges Menendez and his wife, Nadine, with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars, cash and a Mercedes-Benz luxury car.

With his wife as an alleged co-conspirator, Menendez reportedly took the gold, cash and the car as payment for helping three New Jersey businessmen.

But that’s not all.

The indictment also charges that Menendez essentially sold out America by passing sensitive information to Egyptian officials and streamlining foreign aid payments to Egypt in return for favorable treatment to one of the New Jersey businessmen who was given exclusive rights to export halal food products from America to Egypt.

Menendez, who chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time, has vehemently denied that he did anything wrong. But after his indictment, he was forced to relinquish his chairmanship. Some of his Senate colleagues were so bothered by his link to Egypt that they suggested that Menendez be blocked from attending classified intelligence briefings — a suggestion that Menendez rejected.

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Will Menendez pursue a plea deal?

But now comes an even more difficult decision.

Menendez and his attorneys have a chance to study the evidence prosecutors have assembled. In corruption cases, this is basically where the rubber meets the road.

If the evidence is strong, some defendants try to negotiate a plea bargain. In this case, that would likely mean that federal prosecutors would demand that Menendez resign from the Senate and plead guilty to a less stringent set of charges.

If the evidence is seen as weak, however, Menendez, with Luskin who is described as a courtroom fighter, would be set up for a strong defense.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein, a veteran federal judge who was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and has seen his share of politically charged cases, set a deadline of early January for defense attorneys to file any motions or complaints about the evidence.

Stein has signaled that he does not want any delays. He plans to start Menendez’s trial in early May – just a month before the New Jersey Democratic primary that Menendez says he intends to enter and gain his party’s nomination to run for reelection in November.

Such is the potential roadmap. And such a timeline offers the prospect of a tense trial and an equally tense primary campaign, featuring Menendez against the governor’s wife and Rep. Andy Kim, the three-term congressman from central New Jersey. Whether more challengers will enter remains to be seen.

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What about New Jersey voters?

What does this mean for voters?

For starters, the trial is vitally important. This is not the first time a high-ranking elected official in New Jersey has been challenged for taking inappropriate gifts. Exhibit A in this pathetic saga is former Sen. Bob Torricelli, a Democrat who was never indicted but was nonetheless forced to resign by his party for allegedly accepting all kinds of gifts, ranging from diamond earrings for his girlfriend to clocks and rugs.

After Torricelli quit, voters never heard the full extent of his deal-making. With Menendez, we have that chance.

During a federal trial, Menendez will be forced to confront the evidence that prosecutors have reportedly gathered against him.

Under such a spotlight, voters will also have the chance to assess that evidence. Perhaps even more important, voters will have an opportunity to learn why a powerful senator placed himself in a position to take gold, cash and a car -- actions that Menendez does not deny but explains were essentially part of his job.

In the long and sordid history of corruption in New Jersey politics, the trial of Robert Menendez could be a vital window into a system where money buys influence all too often.

Let’s hope we have that trial.

And let’s hope voters also have their chance to decide Menendez’s future in the primary next June.

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Sen. Bob Menendez: NJ voters need federal bribery indictment trial