Businessman Claims $250K Bribery Deal With Sen. Menendez to Halt Investigations
On Friday, a New Jersey businessman testified in the bribery case against Sen. Bob Menendez, telling the jury that he believed he had a $200,000-to-$250,000 deal in 2018 with the Democrat to pressure the New Jersey attorney general’s office to stop investigating his friends and family.
Jose Uribe appeared in Manhattan federal court in the afternoon, delivering important evidence against Menendez and two other businessmen charged with conspiracy, as well as Menendez’s wife. Next week, Menendez’s lawyers will get the opportunity to cross-examine the naturalized US citizen.
“Next week, we’ll know the truth,” Menendez remarked moments before getting into a car that drove him out from Manhattan federal court, where he’s been on trial for the past month. Although he usually speaks briefly in Spanish before leaving court, he made the statement about truth in English.
Uribe, 57, who pleaded guilty to charges in a March cooperation agreement, was the government’s main witness in its attempt to condemn the senator, who previously served as the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was driven out after accusations were filed last fall.
Menendez, 70, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he collected gold bars, cash, and a luxury car in exchange for favors from the businessmen. Two businessmen and Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, have also pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez’s trial has been pushed back until at least July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Uribe testified that he was close friends with Wael Hana, who is on trial with Menendez when Hana told him in early 2018 that New Jersey state criminal investigations into a friend’s trucking business and his own insurance business could be largely resolved if he paid $200,000 to $250,000.
Uribe claimed Hana urged him to go to Nadine Arslanian, who had started dating Menendez that year, and then “Nadine would go to Senator Menendez,” but Uribe did not explain how the couple might handle several probes.
Uribe stated that on July 13, 2018, he hosted a political fundraiser for Menendez, which the senator attended and raised $50,000. He claimed to have attended an afterparty with Menendez and Arslanian that featured cocktails, “some laughs, some jokes, and some dancing,” but made no mention of the work he anticipated Menendez to conduct on his behalf.
“It was a crowded and loud place,” Uribe added.
He stated that his belief that the transaction was working evaporated in the fall when an attorney general’s office investigator requested an interview with his employee.
“I was not happy,” he admitted.
Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz showed jurors a series of text exchanges between Uribe and Hana in which Uribe urged his friend to persuade the senator to terminate the criminal investigations.
“Please make sure your friend is aware of this,” Uribe wrote to Hana in one text. Pomerantz wondered who he was referring to as “your friend.”
“Senator Menendez,” Uribe said. Hana, according to the texts, replied, “I will.”
Hana arranged for Uribe to have supper with Menendez and Arslanian at a restaurant in October 2018, but Uribe claimed there was no mention of the agreement.
“Nothing of value was discussed there, I will say,” Uribe stated. “It was a pointless, a pointless meeting.” Uribe stated that he began interacting directly with Nadine Arslanian in March 2019 and promised to provide her with a car if she fulfilled the plan to persuade the senator to shut down New Jersey criminal investigations.
“She agreed to the terms,” he explained.
When the prosecutor asked Uribe what he believed the conditions of the bargain to be, he stated that Nadine Arslanian would call Menendez and persuade him to use his “influence and power to do anything possible to stop and kill” the investigations.
Former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal testified on Thursday that Menendez attempted to discuss a criminal investigation with him during a phone contact in early 2019 and a September 2019 office meeting. Grewal stated that he followed his policy by refusing to do so, instructing Menendez to contact defense lawyers who could then contact trial-level prosecutors or the judge.
Uribe, of Clifton, New Jersey, pled guilty in March, claiming that he handed Nadine Menendez a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for her husband “using his power and influence as a United States senator to get a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations related to one of my associates.”
Uribe was accused of purchasing the luxury car for Nadine Menendez after her previous vehicle was totaled when she hit and killed a man crossing the street. She did not face any criminal charges in connection with the accident. Menendez is also accused of assisting another New Jersey business colleague in securing a lucrative contract with the Egyptian government.
Prosecutors claim that in exchange for bribery, Menendez performed things that benefited Egypt, such as authoring a letter to colleagues senators urging them to lift a hold on $300 million in funding.
Menendez has also been accused of using his diplomatic clout to help a buddy secure a multimillion-dollar agreement with a Qatari investment vehicle, including taking acts that benefited Qatar’s government.