A federal judge announced on Wednesday that the claims made by former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez regarding his conviction will not be dismissed. Menendez contended that the jury received a laptop containing evidence that should have been excluded from his trial. Judge Sidney H. Stein, presiding in Manhattan, indicated in his written decision that it was “extraordinarily unlikely” the jurors were aware of the materials, given that no mention was made of them throughout the trial. In July, Menendez was found guilty on 16 counts alongside two local businessmen who prosecutors alleged bribed him with significant sums of cash and gold.
Menendez’s legal team has been contacted for comments, as they recently claimed in court documents that their client has faced “financial and professional ruin” since the allegations surfaced in 2023. At 71 years old, Menendez is set to be sentenced next week on charges that include bribery and serving as a foreign agent for Egypt. While prosecutors are advocating for a 15-year prison sentence, his defense team argues for a term shorter than the two years they believe sentencing guidelines suggest.
Recently, prosecutors found evidence on a juror laptop that included language from exhibits, which the judge had previously ruled out of the trial. They made this discovery while preparing to use some of the same evidence in an upcoming case against Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez. Judge Stein dismissed the defense’s suggestion that this oversight warranted either a new trial for Menendez or an inquiry into how the error occurred.
In his ruling, he affirmed the integrity of the trial, stating, “There is no question that this trial was fair to all defendants.” The judge clarified that the content on the laptop was “extra-record information,” meaning it was not presented in open court by either side. He reiterated that it was “extraordinarily unlikely” the jury took notice of the materials, emphasizing that “the extra-record material was a few phrases buried in thousands of exhibits and many thousands of pages of evidence.”
Furthermore, Stein noted that the defense attorneys had a role in ensuring the jury only received appropriate materials. He pointed out that all defense teams had the opportunity to review the juror laptop but did not raise any objections.
Menendez faced charges following an FBI raid in 2022 at his home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, where authorities discovered approximately $150,000 worth of gold bars along with $480,000 in cash, mostly packed in stacks of $100 bills within various items including boots and shoeboxes. Prosecutors described these gold bars, cash, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible found in his garage as the proceeds of bribery.
Menendez has a long-standing career in politics, having started in 1974 when he was elected to the education board in Union City, New Jersey. In 1992, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and transitioned to the U.S. Senate in 2006, a position he relinquished following his conviction.
