The high-profile corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez, a prominent Democrat from New Jersey, commenced on Monday with the start of jury selection. Menendez, who has served in the Senate since 2006, is facing severe charges alleging that he accepted bribes and acted as an unregistered foreign agent.
The 70-year-old senator is accused of 16 criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud. He is being tried in a federal court in Manhattan, alongside two New Jer-sey businessmen, Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman and Fred Daibes, a prom-inent New Jersey developer,
During the initial proceedings, Judge Sidney H. Stein informed the prospective jurors about the nature of the charges against Menendez. The judge stated that the “US senator had been charged with conspiring to "accept bribes and accept bribes."
Prosecutors allege that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, who has also been charged but will be tried separately, received cash, gold bars, and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for Menendez using his political influence to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar, as well as assisting his co-defendants' business interests.
According to the indictment, Menendez promised to help Egypt secure arms sales and mili-tary aid and helped Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, obtain a lucrative monopoly on the certification of halal meat exports to Egypt. Additionally, Menendez allegedly tried to secure millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund for Fred Daibes and attempted to disrupt a federal criminal case against Daibes.
In a separate indictment, Menendez, who previously chaired the influential Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, was also charged with serving as an unregistered agent of Egypt.
Menendez and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all charges. The senator has maintained his innocence and expressed confidence that he will be exonerated, allowing him to continue his political career. However, if convicted, Menendez faces the possibility of a significant prison sentence and the end of his Senate tenure.
