what is happening in the trial per cnn:
“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??”
it is to laugh. not good news for the marriage.
per cnn:
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 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?”
“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.”
See, I’d want something stronger to carry gold bars. Maybe a Hummer.
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.
When you have nothing to work with, you have go stupid?
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!”
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.
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 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
we are at the closing arguments now. the case will be going to the jury soon.
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.
Give it to Richard Cody! He’s great at temporary roles.
I’m surprised Menendez’s defense didn’t haul out the I-was-a-secret-undercover-operative defense. It worked for James Traficant.
Traficant was eventually convicted of bribery and racketeering charges in 2002, went to prison and was expelled by the House.
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i’m sorry. i will be more careful.
thank you.
That would not look good. His name came up during the trial.
So, he already knows what to avoid! Seems like a win-win.