Legal experts weigh in on Menendez indictment, suggest ‘monster’ charges point to likely conviction
Fox News
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has found himself caught up in a wave of legal troubles, and multiple legal experts told Fox News Digital that the “monster” indictment and strong evidence presented against him last week could likely result in a conviction at trial.
The Menendez indictment alleges that the senator and his wife, from at least 2018 through 2022, “engaged in a corrupt relationship” with three New Jersey businessmen.
“Today, I’m announcing that my office has obtained a three-count indictment charging Sen. Robert Menendez, his wife, Nadine Menendez, and three New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, for bribery offenses,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York said at a press conference on Friday.
“I’m hard-pressed to think of an honest explanation for a senator having that amount of cash, gold and other items of value,” said Philip Holloway, a criminal defense attorney and former assistant district attorney. “This case will be very difficult, if not impossible, to defend. I think this is the end of Menendez’ time in the Senate and his days of breathing free air are likewise coming to an end.”
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“Prosecutors went out of their way to be very specific and to even show some of the evidence and fruits of the alleged crime, such as cash and gold bars. Undoubtedly, there is more to this case that they have not yet revealed,” Holloway added. “I suspect there may be audio recordings obtained via wire taps, electronic communications such as emails and text messages, and witness testimony from people with direct knowledge of relevant matters. In short, the indictment appears to be very strong.”
According to the indictment, the couple accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using Menendez’s power and influence as a senator to seek to protect and enrich Hana, Uribe, and Daibes and to benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt.”
The alleged bribes included gold, cash, payments toward a mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury car and “other things of value.”
After an investigation began, Menendez disclosed that in 2020 his family accepted gold bars.
According to prosecutors, Menendez gave sensitive U.S. government information to Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman who “secretly aided the Government of Egypt.”
Menendez allegedly pressured an official at the Department of Agriculture with the goal of protecting a business monopoly granted to Hana by the Egyptian government. In return, Hana allegedly kicked back profits from the monopoly to Menendez, the indictment states.
FBI agents found “approximately $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in closets” and jammed into the senator’s jacket pockets while executing a search warrant at Menendez’s home, Williams said during the press conference.
Similar to that of Holloway, Joseph Tully, a criminal defense attorney out of San Francisco, said the “monster” indictment is “very strong” and concerning for Menendez.
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“The indictment charges Robert Menendez, his wife, Nadine Menendez, as well as three businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who are accused of being co-conspirators,” Tully said. “Sen. Menendez faces up to 45 years if convicted of all charges.”
“The indictment is very strong. Why? Because there is physical evidence presented in the indictment itself that you can put your finger on that points strongly to guilt,” he added.
Like others who have processed the charges against the senator, Tully believes the case involving Menendez will be a “lengthy process.”
“If I had to predict, I would say that the case will settle before trial in order to minimize incarceration time for Sen. Menendez, but this will be a lengthy process in part because the two sides will have to sort out what is real and what is overblown in the indictment,” he said. “The government prosecutors will not want to budge, so the defense will have to keep hammering them with any investigation that they produce, which can undermine the prosecution’s accusations.”
Echoing Holloway and Tully, David Gelman, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, told Fox he believes, based on what has been revealed, that Menendez “should be very concerned right now about these charges.”
Speaking to its strength, Gelman said the indictment “appears to be anchored by physical evidence” recovered from the senator’s home.
Gelman also outlined how a prolonged Menendez downfall could impact the New Jersey Senate election next cycle should he not resign.
“The charges are extremely serious and directly touch upon his public office. However, it’s not the first time the senator has faced such allegations. If he were to resign, then the governor could appoint a replacement until the end of his term,” said Gelman. “If convicted, or if it keeps going, which it will, the Senate will go through impeachment hearings in the event he doesn’t resign. If he does not, and with an election looming, this could assist any Democrat challenger in the primary.”
Making a similar point about the 2024 election, Tully said, “Looking at the political landscape, the Democrats will likely rally around their colleague and keep him in his post for as long as possible.”
“They will most likely take a wait-and-see approach to any congressional sanction or discipline and wait until the criminal action has run its course,” Tully added.
Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at The Lawfare Project, said the indictment “paints a pretty detailed, well-documented and damning picture of alleged malfeasance by the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acting illegally for the benefit of a foreign government.”
“At a time when the Department of Justice is under scrutiny for what some call a two-tiered system of justice, the allegations that Sen. Menendez sought to influence state and federal prosecutions in exchange for cash are particularly troubling,” said Filitti. “That Menendez was advising the president on whom to nominate as a United States attorney also calls to question the impartiality of the federal criminal justice system.”
Discussing Menendez’s fate, as compared to past cases presented against the senator, Filitti said the evidence outlined in the indictment “speaks to a higher likelihood that [Menendez] would be convicted at trial.”
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In agreement with many of her counterparts, Alexandra Wilkes, an attorney and Republican strategist, said she believes the “strong indictment” included “clear evidence of accepting bribes for political favors.”
“What is so shocking is the senator’s arrogance and brazenness. Meetings were conducted in the open, and payments and gifts were accepted directly without even the slightest effort to conceal them,” Wilkes said.
For Wilkes, it’s too early to determine whether Menendez will face jail time or be removed from office, but she noted that the “gold bars” and “money in jackets” is “cartoonishly bad – even by New Jersey standards.”
Others, including Ken Belkin, a criminal defense and civil rights attorney in New York, say that betting against the senator in this case is not a wise position to take.
“He beat one federal indictment against all the odds, I wouldn’t necessarily bet against him,” said Belkin. “There is a sense of mistrust regarding federal prosecution among a large segment of the population.”
Pointing to “spousal privilege” and highlighting the fact that “communications between husband and wife are typically privileged,” Belkin suggested that issue will be “fertile ground for the defense to assert that privilege in order to make a motion to suppress some of the government’s evidence.”
At least a dozen New Jersey and national Democrats have called on Menendez to resign from office in the wake of the indictment.
The calls ramped up after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said the allegations that Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for favors were “deeply disturbing” and that Menendez should immediately step down. Should Menendez resign, Murphy would appoint an interim senator to serve until Menendez’s current term ends in 2025.
“These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system,” Murphy said Friday. The governor emphasized that Menendez is innocent until proven guilty but noted that “the alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Sen. Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”
Menendez, who temporarily stepped down from his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has denied all wrongdoing and insisted that he will not resign.
“Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty. I intend to continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades,” Menendez said in a statement. “This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along. It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.