The impending trial for alleged federal corruption involving Senator Menendez is set to commence in the coming week.
At a hearing in New York's federal court on Monday, Judge Sidney Stein set the ground rules for the upcoming trial of New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and his co-defendants. The trial, which is expected to start with jury selection next Monday, will see Menendez standing trial alongside two New Jersey businessmen. Menendez's wife, Nadine, has also been charged and will be tried separately.
Another co-defendant, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges and is cooperating with federal prosecutors.
The Menendez trial will be one of several high-profile cases featuring current and former members of Congress, including ex-Representatives George Santos and Henry Cuellar, who are also facing federal charges. The trial is projected to run for several weeks, with the prosecution attempting to prove that Menendez, Wael Hana, and Fred Daibes engaged in a corrupt scheme to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments in exchange for monetary bribes. All three men have pleaded not guilty.
Judge Stein has decided on the admissibility of certain arguments and evidence that will be presented to the jury. Stein has made it known that he does not want the trial to devolve into conflicts between attorneys or become a platform for political commentary.
Prosecutors will be allowed to present evidence showing how the Menendezes allegedly used the money from their scheme to maintain an extravagant lifestyle. Nadine Menendez has also pleaded not guilty.
"Menendez's desire for the car, the gold, the watches goes to his motive – the lifestyle," Stein said, although he cautioned against showing "hundreds of photographs of assets."
Arguments barred by the judge include any effort from Menendez's legal team to question FBI agents about whether he was warned by investigators that the Egyptian government intended to use him as an agent. Stein said this line of questioning could mislead jurors into believing that the government had a duty to inform the senator, which it did not.
While the senator can defend his actions as being beneficial to the public, he cannot use how his fellow lawmakers operate as a justification for his behavior.
Despite this, there are still various issues that need to be addressed before the trial kicks off, such as Menendez's proposal to call a psychiatrist to testify about the psychological effects of his father's suicide and his family's history of confiscated property in Cuba. The prosecution wants to block this, arguing that the psychiatrist's opinion is not based on scientific principles or methods and that the defence is seeking to draw jurors' sympathy.
The judge has not yet decided which questions defense attorneys and prosecutors will be able to ask prospective jurors from New York. The defence has suggested asking: "Do you have any opinions about people from New Jersey in general?" and "Do you think that because they are from New Jersey, they are more likely to break the law?" On the other hand, the prosecution has proposed questions like "Do any of you have strong feelings regarding whether the United States Department of Justice should or should not pursue charges against elected officials?"
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The judge has ruled out allowing any questioning by Menendez's legal team about potential warnings from investigators regarding the Egyptian government's plans to use him as an agent. The defense team plans to call a psychiatrist to testify about the psychological effects of Menendez's father's suicide and his family's history of confiscated property in Cuba, but the prosecution argues that this testimony lacks a scientific basis and seeks to elicit sympathy from the jury.
Source: edition.cnn.com
