A New Jersey businessman shows off his star form while testifying in a bribery case Senator Bob Menendez On Friday, he told a jury that he believed he had a deal to make $200,000 to $250,000 for Democrats in 2018 to pressure the New Jersey attorney general’s office to drop investigations into his friends and family.
Jose Uribe testified in Manhattan federal court this afternoon, giving key testimony against Menendez and two other businessmen who are accused of conspiring with Menendez’s wife. Next week, Menendez’s lawyers will cross-examine the naturalized U.S. citizen.
Conway won the Democratic primary to replace Congressman Bob Menendez who challenged him for Senate
“Next week we will know the truth,” Menendez said just before getting into a car leaving Manhattan federal court, where he has been on trial for the past month. Although he typically speaks briefly in Spanish as he leaves court each day, he made his comments about the truth in English.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., leaves federal court in New York on Friday, June 7, 2024. Jose Uribe, a New Jersey businessman who pleaded guilty in the bribery case against Menendez, began testifying Friday as a key witness in the month-old trial in Manhattan. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)
Uribe, 57, pleaded guilty to the charges in a cooperation agreement reached in March and was the government’s key witness in securing a conviction against the senator, who once held the powerful position of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but was removed from that position last year after the charges were filed.
Menendez, 70, has denied charges that he accepted gold bars, cash and a luxury car in exchange for doing favors for the businessmen. The two businessmen and Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, have also pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed until at least July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Uribe said in testimony that he was a close friend of Wael Hana, who is facing trial alongside Menendez, when Hana told him in early 2018 that new Jersey If he agreed to spend $200,000 to $250,000, the state criminal investigation revolving around his friend’s trucking business and his own insurance business could largely be stopped.
Uribe said Hana had told him he would go to Nadine Arslanian, who began dating Menendez that same year, and then “Nadine would go to Senator Menendez”, though Uribe did not testify about how the pair might juggle the various investigations.
Uribe said he organized a political fundraiser for Menendez on July 13, 2018, which the senator attended and raised $50,000. He said he attended an afterparty with Menendez and Arslanian that included cocktails as well as “some laughs and some dancing,” but he made no mention of what work Menendez expected him to do on his behalf.
“It was a crowded, noisy place,” Uribe said.
He said his confidence that the deal would work was dashed when an investigator from the attorney general’s office asked to interview his staffer.
“I wasn’t happy,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz showed jurors some text messages between Uribe and Hanna, in which Uribe pressured his friend to stop the criminal investigation into the senator.
“Please make sure your friend knows about this,” Uribe wrote in a message to Hanna.
Pomerantz asked who he was referring to as “your friend.”
“Senator Menendez,” Uribe replied. According to the messages, Hanna responded: “I will.”
Hanna had arranged for Uribe to have dinner with Menendez and Arslanian at a restaurant in October 2018, but Uribe said in testimony that there was no mention of the deal.
“There was no substantive discussion,” Uribe testified. “It was a waste, a futile meeting.”
Uribe said he began communicating directly with Nadine Arslanian in March 2019 and promised to buy her a car if she completed a deal to persuade the senator to drop the New Jersey criminal investigation.
“She agreed to the terms,” he said.
When the prosecutor asked Uribe what he understood the terms of the deal to mean, he said he understood that Nadine Arslanian would contact Menendez and use her influence and power to force him to do everything possible to stop and end the investigation.
On Thursday, former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal testified that Menendez had tried to talk to him about the criminal investigation in a telephone call in early 2019 and in an office meeting in September 2019. Grewal said he followed his policy and declined to do so, telling Menendez to contact defense attorneys so they could contact trial-level prosecutors or a judge.
Uribe, a resident of Clifton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in March, saying he gave Nadine Menendez a Mercedes-Benz for her husband and “used my power and influence as a United States senator to obtain a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations involving one of my colleagues.”
Uribe was accused of buying a luxury car for Nadine Menendez after his previous car was destroyed when he struck and killed a man crossing the street. He was not criminally charged in connection with that accident.
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Menendez is also accused of helping another New Jersey business associate get a lucrative deal. Egyptian governmentProsecutors allege that in exchange for bribes, Menendez took actions that benefited Egypt, including writing a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a block on $300 million in aid.
Menendez is also accused of using his international influence to help a friend secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, including by acting in deference to the Qatari government.
