Prosecutors fire back at Bob Menendez bid to delay corruption trial, claim ‘nothing’ justifies move

Federal prosecutors asked a Manhattan judge Tuesday to reject Sen. Bob Menendez’s push to shelve his trial on corruption charges until after New Jersey’s June 4 primary.

US Attorney Damian Williams argued in a filing to US District Judge Sidney Stein that the current schedule — which sets the trial to begin May 6, 2024, was “expedited, but reasonable.”

“Nothing in the defendant’s request for an adjournment, made more than two months after the schedule was set, justifies a material deviation from this considered schedule,” Williams went on.

Attorneys for Menendez and his co-defendants implored Stein last week to postpone the trial to early July, citing the complexity of the case as well as the “volume and timing of the government’s disclosures.”

“Contrary to the government’s overheated statements to the press, this is far from an open-and-shut case,” the Democrat’s lawyers said in the filing.

Bob Menendez’s legal team is trying to delay the trial start date. AP

Williams scoffed at the defense’s claim, writing Tuesday: “If there were a right to have multiple months to digest discovery prior to filing motions, as the defendants appear to suggest, practice in this district would look quite different.”

Menendez, 69, is accused along with his wife Nadine of accepting bribes — including more than $150,000 in gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible— to assist businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes, all of whom are also charged in the case.

Menendez, the former chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is also accused of acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.

Two of the gold bars found during a search by federal agents of Sen. Bob Menendez’s home showcased in the senator’s indictment. AP

Investigators also found wads of cash in envelopes cash stashed inside a jacket with the senator’s name, per the indictment. AP

Should he be convicted, the New Jersey Democrat could face up to 45 years behind bars. He has pleaded not guilty and insisted he will be vindicated.

While Menendez has not said whether he will run for another term next year, he has refused to resign in the face of a chorus of Senate Democrats and New Jersey politicos imploring him to do just that.

Despite his stubbornness, polls show Menendez badly losing a hypothetical Democratic primary to progressive Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ). New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy has also announced she is challenging Menendez for Senate.

The senator has rejected calls for his resignation thus far. AP

US attorney Damian Williams’s office is prosecuting the case against Bob Menendez. AP

“Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a US Senator,” Menendez said in response to the initial indictment back in September.

“Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals.”

Menendez, who was first appointed to the Senate in 2006 and has been elected four times since, previously survived bribery charges on an unrelated matter in 2017 due to a hung jury.