# NJ Senator Menendez indicted on multiple corruption charges {2023-09-22} - Convicted on all counts on July 16, 2024
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [September 22, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544 "2023-09-22T15:02:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 15
### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/281 "2024-06-06T12:50:25Z")
what is happening in the trial per cnn:
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/282 "2024-06-06T12:53:04Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> Nadine Menendez, Weitzman said, “had financial concerns she kept” from her husband and engaged in cash and gold exchanges of which he was not made aware.
“Godammit, Nadine, I’m sick to death of tripping over your gold bars! I almost just broky my pinky toe. Where are you getting these from, anyway??”
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/283 "2024-06-06T13:06:13Z")
it is to laugh. not good news for the marriage.
per cnn:
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/284 "2024-06-06T13:12:51Z")
from abc news:
An investigator provided a New York jury a riveting account on Tuesday of an evening in Washington, D.C., in 2019 when an FBI surveillance team came across Sen. [Bob Menendez](https://apnews.com/video/robert-menendez-indictments-manhattan-courts-nadine-menendez-281d294576c34459aed1835f5d1e4876) and his girlfriend at a fancy restaurant.
The investigator, Terrie Williams-Thompson, told the jury at Menendez’s bribery trial that the team was following another person at the table at Morton’s when she overheard Menendez’s future wife, Nadine Arslanian, ask:
“What else can the love of my life do for you?”
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/285 "2024-06-06T13:13:34Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> “Congratulations mon amour de la vie we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes.”
“That was so nice of that guy to give us a new Mercedes and expect absolutely nothing in return! It will make it easier to cart around these gold bars that you keep mysteriously receiving.”
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/286 "2024-06-06T16:30:54Z")
See, I’d want something stronger to carry gold bars. Maybe a Hummer.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/287 "2024-06-06T16:34:24Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> None of Hana’s “gifts” to Nadine Menendez, “before or after she met Mr. Menendez, were in exchange for anything,” Lustberg said. “What the government is trying to do here is criminalize gift-giving.”
>
> “It’s a good thing,” he added, “human beings give each other gifts.”
Man, if I were on the jury when the defense attorney said this, I’d have a hard time not jumping up and shouting, “Guilty! Guilty as shit!”
That has got to be the most condescending, sneering, blatantly stupid defense argument I have ever heard.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/288 "2024-06-06T16:37:18Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> That has got to be the most condescending, sneering, blatantly stupid defense argument I have ever heard.
When you have nothing to work with, you have go stupid?
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/289 "2024-06-06T17:21:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Man, if I were on the jury when the defense attorney said this, I’d have a hard time not jumping up and shouting, “Guilty! Guilty as shit!”
For some reason when I read those lines from Lustberg, my mind automatically puts them in the voice of Jon Lovitz’s SNL pathological liar character. All that’s missing is, “Yeah, that’s the ticket!”
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/290 "2024-06-06T17:35:47Z")
I mean, part of it is class rage. I know that multi-millionaires and politicians and assorted sleazebags have gold bars and fancy cars and literal bags of cash–sure. And I know that wealthy people are always giving each other fancy shit, absolutely. But that doesn’t mean it makes me happy to contemplate, and it sure as _fuck_ isn’t “a good thing…human beings giv[ing] each other gifts” in the same way that it’s a good thing when a kid hands me a flower that he picked from his garden, or when my brother gives me a book he thinks I’ll enjoy.
The defense ought to be saying, “Are these assholes sleazy? Are they gross? Are you throwing up a little in your mouth when you hear about them keeping wads of cash in their boots? Yes. But just because they’re living exorbitant wasteful lifestyles that make you want to dust off the old guillotine doesn’t mean they actually broke the law.”
Maybe put it in more delicate terms than that, but that’s the gist.
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2024, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/291 "2024-06-18T15:35:30Z")
per washington post:
…
A New Jersey trucking and insurance executive is the only witness expected to testify that Menendez and his wife agreed to a corrupt deal. And [Jose Uribe](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/06/10/bob-menendez-corruption-trial-jose-uribe-testimony/?itid=lk_inline_manual_42) gave vivid descriptions of his encounters with the senator, at one point telling the jury about a “little bell” he said Menendez used to summon people.
from here: [Five memorable moments in the corruption trial of Bob Menendez - The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/06/18/bob-menendez-corruption-trial/)
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/292 "2024-07-09T18:14:14Z")
we are at the closing arguments now. the case will be going to the jury soon.
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### Author:  [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/293 "2024-07-10T05:27:50Z")
I wonder who Governor Murphy might appoint as interim U.S senator in place of Menendez.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/294 "2024-07-10T13:09:47Z")
> [@Eric1](#):
>
> I wonder who Governor Murphy might appoint as interim U.S senator in place of Menendez.
He could give it to Andy Kim who will win the seat in November but that’s taking his vote out of the House. Corzine could probably be talked into doing it again for a few months.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/295 "2024-07-10T13:12:14Z")
Give it to Richard Cody! He’s great at temporary roles.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/296 "2024-07-10T13:28:41Z")
I’m surprised Menendez’s defense didn’t haul out the I-was-a-secret-undercover-operative defense. [It worked for James Traficant](http://politico.com/story/2014/07/house-votes-to-expel-a-lawmaker-july-24-2002-109289).
> [@](#):
>
> In 1983, Traficant, while serving as sheriff of Mahoning County, had been charged with racketeering for accepting bribes. During that trial, he claimed he had accepted the bribes as part of an undercover investigation into corruption. The jury acquitted Traficant, making him the only person ever to win a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case while representing himself.
Traficant was eventually convicted of bribery and racketeering charges in 2002, went to prison and was expelled by the House.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/297 "2024-07-10T15:51:46Z")
**Moderating** : I had to delete the better part of 4 of your posts as you greatly exceeded fair use. Please do not do this again.
[From the TOS:](https://boards.straightdope.com/tos)
> **Copyrighted material.** Please observe the following rules regarding copyrighted material.
>
> - _Fair use posting of copyrighted material only._ You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by the operator of the SDMB, except as permitted by the “fair use” provisions of U.S. copyright law (in general this means brief excerpts only). If you are quoting published material it is good etiquette to provide a link to the source.
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/298 "2024-07-10T17:03:44Z")
i’m sorry. i will be more careful.
thank you.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/299 "2024-07-10T18:51:43Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> Give it to Richard Cody! He’s great at temporary roles.
That would not look good. His name came up during the trial.
> **[Former A.G.'s testimony in Menendez trial reveals more New Jersey grossness •...](https://newjerseymonitor.com/2024/06/07/former-a-g-s-testimony-in-menendez-trial-reveals-more-new-jersey-grossness/)**
>
> The former A.G. said a now-ex state senator and a former Murphy administration official tried to discuss pending criminal matters with him.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2024, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-senator-menendez-indicted-on-multiple-corruption-charges-2023-09-22-convicted-on-all-counts-on-july-16-2024/990544/300 "2024-07-11T00:04:30Z")
So, he already knows what to avoid! Seems like a win-win.
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