US Sen. Bob Menendez, wife to be tried separately in bribery case

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - US Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife will be tried separately on allegations of bribery, with the senator’s trial set for May 9, according to reports that cited Manhattan federal judge Sidney Stein.

“This trial is going forward without Mrs. Menendez,” Stein was quoted by the New York Times.

The trial for the state of New Jersey senator’s wife, Nadine Arslanian, is set for July 8 as she undergoes surgery to treat a medical condition, CBS reported.

“The government expects that if this case were tried twice,” prosecutors wrote the judge on Wednesday, “it would have to present the same or substantially the same case, in full, a second time,” according to the New York Times,

Menendez and Arslanian pleaded not guilty last month to new obstruction of justice charges in the ongoing corruption case.

The two are accused of conspiring to use the senator's power as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments, and helping businessmen Fred Daibes, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe, who have been charged with them.

Menendez was previously charged following a years-long corruption investigation of illicitly using his office to benefit the Egyptian government, and a trio of businessmen from New Jersey, including Daibes.

Nadine Arslanian, his wife and the businessmen have pleaded not guilty.

Investigators found more than $486,000 in cash when they searched Menendez's home in 2022, "much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe," in addition to gold bars, according to the indictment that was unsealed last month.

Two of the one-kilogram bars and nine one-ounce gold bars that were recovered bore serial numbers indicating they were once owned by Daibes, according to prosecutors.