A New Jersey businessman took the lead witness position in the bribery case against Sen. Bob Menendez on Friday, telling jurors he made a $200,000 to $250,000 deal with the congressman in 2018 to pressure the New Jersey attorney general’s office to drop an investigation into his friends and family.
Jose Uribe testified in Manhattan federal court this afternoon, providing key evidence against Menendez and two other businessmen charged with conspiracy along with his wife. Menendez’s defense team plans to cross-examine the naturalized U.S. citizen next week.
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“The truth will come out next week,” Menendez said shortly before getting into a car from the Manhattan federal courthouse where he was on trial last month. He normally speaks a little Spanish each day as he leaves the courthouse, but made his comments about the truth in English.
Dynamo New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez leaves a federal courthouse in New York, Friday, June 7, 2024. Jose Uribe, a New Jersey businessman who pleaded guilty in a bribery case against Menendez, began testifying Friday as a key witness in the month-old trial in Manhattan. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)
Uribe, 57, who pleaded guilty to the charges in the March cooperation agreement, was the government’s star witness in the effort to secure a conviction against the senator, who held a powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was ousted from that position after the charges were filed last fall.
Menendez, 70, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he accepted gold bars, cash and luxury cars in return for favors from businessmen. The two businessmen and Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, have also pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez’s trial has been delayed until at least July because of a breast cancer diagnosis.
Uribe testified that he was close friends with Wael Hana, who is on trial with Menendez, and that Hana told him in early 2018 that a New Jersey criminal investigation swirling around his friend’s trucking business and his insurance company could be all but ended if he was willing to pay between $200,000 and $250,000.
Uribe said Hana went to Nadine Arslanian, who began dating Menendez that year, and then told him “Nadine was going to Senator Menendez,” but Uribe did not testify about how the couple resolved the multiple investigations.
Uribe said he hosted a fundraiser for Menendez on July 13, 2018, which the senator attended and raised $50,000, and that he attended an after-party with Menendez and Arslanian, where they enjoyed cocktails and “laughing, joking and dancing,” but did not say anything about what he expects Menendez to do for him.
“It was a crowded, noisy place,” Uribe said.
He said his confidence that the deal was working faded after investigators from the attorney general’s office requested to interview employees in the fall.
“I wasn’t happy,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz presented jurors with a series of text messages between Uribe and Hana in which Uribe pressured a friend to drop Hana from the criminal investigation.
“Please make sure to let your friends know about this,” Uribe wrote in an email to Hana.
Pomerantz asked who “your friend” he meant.
“Senator Menendez,” Uribe replied. “I will,” Hana replied, according to the text messages.
Hana testified that he arranged for Uribe to have dinner with Menendez and Arslanian at a restaurant in October 2018, but that no mention of the transaction was made to Uribe.
“I have to say that nothing of value was discussed there,” Uribe testified. “It was a pointless, pointless meeting.”
Uribe said he began contacting Sen. Nadine Arslanian directly in March 2019, promising to buy her a car if she followed through on her promise to drop a criminal investigation in New Jersey.
“She agreed to the terms,” he said.
When prosecutors asked Uribe what he understood the terms of the deal to mean, he said he understood Nadine Arslanian to have contacted Menendez and use his “influence and power to obstruct and thwart the investigation” by using whatever means necessary.
On Thursday, Gurbir Grewal, a former New Jersey attorney general, testified that Menendez tried to talk to him about the criminal investigation during a phone call in early 2019 and a meeting at his office in September 2019. Grewal said he refused, following his own policy, and instructed Menendez to contact defense lawyers who would then contact trial-level prosecutors and judges.
Uribe, of Clifton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in March and said in his plea that Nadine Menendez’s husband “used his power and influence as a United States senator to obstruct and obtain a favorable outcome from all investigations into one of my associates” in return for giving her a Mercedes-Benz.
Uribe is accused of buying the luxury car for Nadine Menendez after she struck and killed a man crossing the road and destroyed her previous car. Menendez has not faced criminal charges in connection with the accident.
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Menendez is also accused of helping another New Jersey businessman secure a lucrative deal with the Egyptian government. Prosecutors allege that in exchange for bribes, Menendez took actions to benefit Egypt, including writing letters to fellow senators urging them to lift the suspension of $300 million in aid.
Menendez is also charged with using his international influence to help a friend secure multimillion-dollar deals with Qatari investment funds and taking actions favorable to the government of Qatar.
