A federal judge in Manhattan has blocked prosecutors in the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez from turning over text messages related to a 2019 debate over aid to Egypt, exchanges that the government has called “critical” to the case.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein on Friday agreed with the New Jersey Democrat’s lawyers that admitting into evidence messages between Egyptian government officials and Menendez’s co-defendant, Wael Hana, violates the Constitution’s “speech and debate clause,” which says members of Congress cannot be held criminally or civilly liable for conduct related to their legislative duties.
Judge Stein also ruled that prosecutors could not introduce another exchange from 2022 in which Menendez’s wife, Nadine, allegedly forwarded Hana links about two military sales to Egypt worth about $2.5 billion and wrote, “Bob had to sign this.”
The exchanges were detailed in an indictment filed in March by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
According to authorities, on September 9, 2019, an Egyptian official sent a message to Hana stating, “Sen. [sic] Menendize [sic] put [sic] $1 billion USAID on hold [sic] “To Egypt,” he asked, “Is that true?”
Hana then tried unsuccessfully to contact Nadine Menendez, then contacted another co-defendant, real estate developer Fred Dibes, who apparently contacted the senator and relayed his response to Hana.
“Less than two minutes later,” the indictment reads, “Hana [the Egyptian official] “That’s not true,” he wrote. [Menendez] I knew nothing about the US detention. [sic] Aid to Egypt.”
At the time of the exchange, Mr Menendez was the ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he resigned as committee chairman after he and Ms Nadine were first indicted in September.
Bob Menendez faces 18 federal charges that allege he and his wife accepted cash, gold bars, a Mercedes and other items in exchange for political favors for Dives, Hana and a third New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe. Uribe has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
Prosecutors also say Menendez used his position as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to illegally provide benefits to the governments of Egypt and Qatar in exchange for money and other benefits.
During a May 21 hearing on the text messages, prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told Stein that the 2019 messages showed the Cairo government was “desperate about not getting value for its money.” According to CBS News.
Monteleoni added that the 2022 text message from Nadine was a coded instruction: “Keep the bribes flowing and he will keep giving you what you want in terms of military aid.”
Stein was skeptical, telling prosecutors, “Clearly the crux of the legislation is detention or release. I don’t think it matters whether there was misinformation here.”
Monteleoni argued in vain that such a ruling by Stein would exclude “some of the most crucial and important evidence” related to the foreign agent charges.
Investigators searched Menendez’s home in 2022 and allegedly recovered more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, $480,000 in cash, and other items.
The senator has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
The trial of Bob Menendez, Dives and Hana began on May 13 and is now in its third week. The judge agreed to postpone the trial of Nadine, who is battling grade 3 breast cancer, until later this year.
Earlier this month, the senator’s lawyer denied the existence of the gold bars and claimed his wife had hidden them without his knowledge.
Menendez later defended Nadine in an interview with The Washington Post, telling her, “Don’t suck my blood! She has cancer.”
Rep. Bob Menendez has resisted pressure from Democratic lawmakers to resign from his seat in Congress, but has declined to seek renomination in the June 4 primary.
But the 70-year-old has left open the path to independent re-election and is even reportedly collecting signatures to get his party on the ballot.
To achieve that, Menendez needs to gather 800 signatures by primary election day, when Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is the near-certain candidate to replace him as the Democratic nominee.
