Federal prosecutors have admitted to missteps in the case of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who was found guilty of corruption-related charges this past summer.
The mistakes could jeopardize the verdicts in the case, giving the former New Jersey senator an opening to appeal or request a new trial. Prosecutors revealed their series of errors in a letter last month, in which they told the Southern District of New York they had inadvertently given the jury access to evidence a judge ruled jurors should not see.
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Immediately after reports that prosecutors found improper evidence placed on computers accessed by jurors, Menendez asked a federal court to throw out his conviction and grant him a new trial, saying the outcome is now “unavoidable.” The push for a new trial comes as Menendez is expected to be sentenced Jan. 29.
If Menendez and his attorneys get his way, the former senator could be on track to beat corruption charges a second time after a mistrial in a separate case in 2017 after jurors could not come to a unanimous verdict.
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Prosecutors argued it’s “vanishingly unlikely” and unreasonable to think any juror actually viewed all the documents on the laptop and came across the sensitive material, claiming “there is no reasonable likelihood any juror ever saw any of the erroneously less-redacted versions.”
“The prosecution gift-wrapped them one here,” Jonathan Kravis, a former federal prosecutor, told Politico.
Menendez’s lawyers claim the exhibits “exposed the jury to a theory of criminality that the government was barred from presenting under the Speech or Debate Clause — namely, that Senator Menendez made specific decisions with respect to military sales to Egypt in exchange for bribes.”
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The Speech or Debate Clause under the Constitution requires members of Congress “shall not be questioned” for “any speech or debate” in either the House or Senate. The judge had ruled certain material referencing arms sales and military aid to Egypt had been legislative acts that were shielded by the clause.
Stan Brand, a former counsel to the House of Representatives, told Politico the breach could lead to the judge making a decision to “dismiss the indictment or give this guy a new trial.”
Menendez was charged on 16 federal counts in late July, including extortion, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, bribery, and conspiracy. He was found guilty on all 16 counts last week after the jury deliberated for more than 12 hours over the course of three days.
As a result, Menendez resigned from the Senate on Aug. 20, following his felony conviction in the case. The third-term Democrat from New Jersey was accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars, a luxury convertible, furniture, and 13 gold bars in exchange for steering aid to Egypt, setting up a lucrative halal meat monopoly, and disrupting criminal investigations on behalf of his friends and family.
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He is the first senator to be charged with acting as a foreign agent and the first to be indicted in separate bribery cases.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein has yet to address the laptop issues or calls for a new trial for Menendez. If sentencing moves forward, the most serious charges of extortion and wire fraud carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Menendez faces a maximum of 222 years in prison for all 16 charges, but it’s likely any sentences would run concurrently. At age 70, he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
