Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D) requested a new trial after it was revealed that prosecutors had shown the jury in his corruption trial evidence that was supposed to have been redacted.
In a court filing from Menendez’s attorney Adam Fee, it was noted that the “government provided the jury” with evidence that was supposed to be excluded from the trial, according to the Hill.
The court filing from Menendez’s attorney comes after prosecutors wrote in a letter from November 13, 2024, that “incorrect versions of nine Government Exhibits were loaded on the laptop the parties jointly provided to the jury for use in its deliberations.”
“In light of this serious breach, a new trial is unavoidable, despite all of the hard work and resources that went into the first one,” Fee wrote.
Menendez, who was found guilty on all counts in his federal corruption trial in July, resigned from his Senate seat in August.
ABC News reported that federal prosecutors claimed that Menendez had “accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator’s political clout.”
“While the government now tries to downplay this evidence as ‘of secondary relevance’ and ‘meaningless’ (Letter at 1,8), the Unredacted Exhibits are the only evidence specifically tying Senator Menendez to an actual, consummated provision of military aid to Egypt,” Fee added.
The Hill noted that the “evidence accidentally shown to jurors” had been “barred by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein”:
The evidence accidentally shown to jurors was previously barred by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein. Prosecutors sought reconsideration of that decision and called the evidence “very critical,” which the defense attorneys say strengthens their argument for a new trial.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez were both charged in September 2023, with three federal counts of allegedly having accepted bribes and using Menendez’s “power and influence” while serving as a senator to “protect and enrich” three businessmen; Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, and Jose Uribe, and to “benefit” the Egyptian government, according to a 39-page indictment in the New York Times.
In January, the former senator was also slapped with additional allegations that he had accepted bribes from Qatar’s royal family in exchange for speaking favorably about Qatar. The indictment alleged that in exchange for speaking positively about Qatar, Menendez was allegedly given items such as luxury wristwatches.
As Breitbart News previously reported, in May, Menendez’s home was searched and found to have been holding over $600,000 in cash and gold bars.