“So, Menendez offered the facility of his workplace,” he stated.
The prosecutor’s closing assertion got here because the trial of Mr. Menendez, 70, and the 2 businessmen — Wael Hana and Fred Daibes — entered its ninth week in Federal District Court docket in Manhattan. Prosecutors say Mr. Hana and Mr. Daibes have been enriched within the scheme and helped to funnel bribes to the senator and his spouse, Nadine Menendez, 57.
In alternate, the indictment says, Mr. Menendez steered assist and weapons to Egypt, used his political clout to assist the federal government of Qatar, propped up Mr. Hana’s profitable halal certification enterprise monopoly and sought to disrupt a number of legal investigations in New Jersey on behalf of Mr. Daibes, an actual property developer, and one other ally, Jose Uribe, a former insurance coverage dealer.
Mr. Menendez alone faces 16 felony expenses: bribery, conspiracy, sincere providers fraud, obstruction of justice, extortion, performing as an agent for Egypt and different counts.
Ever since he was charged final 12 months, Mr. Menendez has proclaimed his innocence, saying he can be exonerated and had no intention of resigning.
The senator’s colleagues in Washington are ready warily for a verdict in his trial. A conviction would create large stress on him to resign, or for his fellow senators to carry an expulsion vote. If he’s discovered not responsible or the jury can not attain a verdict, Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, has stated he’ll run for re-election as an impartial, probably hurting his personal social gathering’s candidate, Consultant Andy Kim, in November.
