S.P. Sullivan | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nU.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is asking a federal judge to push his scheduled May corruption trial by at least two months after prosecutors dumped a trove of evidence collected in their probe into the powerful senator\u2019s alleged actions on behalf of New Jersey business associates and the Egyptian government.\u201cWe do not make this request lightly,\u201d attorneys for New Jersey\u2019s senior senator wrote U.S. District Court Judge Sidney H. Stein in a Wednesday filing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are compelled to do so, however, given the complexity of this case \u2014 which includes, for example, an unprecedented foreign-agent charge against a sitting Senator based on a statute the government has never-before prosecuted \u2014 the volume and timing of the government\u2019s disclosures, and the significant motion practice ahead.\u201dMenendez was indicted in September on federal corruption charges that ensnared his wife and three others in a shocking case that alleged bribes paid out with gold bars and envelopes stuffed with cash, payments toward a home mortgage, no-show jobs and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz.Prosecutors said in exchange, the senator conspired to use his political influence to benefit his friends and associates. One of those associates was also accused of working on behalf of the Egyptian government, leading to the unusual charges of \u201cconspiracy as public official to act as a foreign agent\u201d against Menendez.It\u2019s a case that launched a thousand Jersey jokes on social media and late night television, as well as an increasingly crowded race for Menendez\u2019s once-safe Senate seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Menendez, a Democrat, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges.In their Wednesday letter, attorneys Adam Fee and Avi Weitzman said despite \u201cthe government\u2019s overheated statements to the press, this is far from an open-and-shut case.\u201dThey also cite a \u201csimply massive\u201d amount of discovery \u2014 the evidence turned over by prosecutors ahead of a trial \u2014 provided by the government in their case, some of it very recently, \u201cwithout sufficient metadata.\u201dThe trove of records includes 6.7 million documents that took up 735 terabytes of data \u2014 a size, the senator\u2019s attorneys claimed, larger than the book collection at the Library of Congress. Prosecutors still haven\u2019t provided \u201cclassified discovery,\u201d the filing states, and some defense attorneys are still in the process of obtaining security clearances to review classified material.Menendez is currently scheduled for a May 6 trial. His attorneys requested postponement to \u201ca date convenient for the court in July 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The filing also provides a preview of Menendez\u2019s defense strategy, which his lawyers are still developing as they comb through prosecutors\u2019 disclosures. It says the senator \u201cexpects to file substantial motions\u201d challenging the constitutionality of the foreign agent charge, which has not been previously prosecuted.They are also targeting the \u201csufficiency of the indictment\u201d and are considering looking for a change of venue from the Southern District of New York, where U.S. Attorney Damian Williams brought the charges, according to the letter.A July trial date would still put the case in front of a jury ahead of the 2024 election, when New Jersey\u2019s senate seat is next on the ballot. But it would push the trial until after the Democratic primary, scheduled for June 4.Menendez, who has resisted calls from his own party to step down, has not said whether he will seek re-election.\u201cThe government presented this in the most salacious way possible, the most sensational way possible, in order to have the desired effect that they have temporarily achieved,\u201d he said during an October interview aired on NJ Spotlight News. \u201cThe reality is that I\u2019m innocent and I\u2019m going to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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recent news <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No delays<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Federal judge rejects Menendez request for delay in corruption trial<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sen. Bob Menendez may have a few more months to wait before his federal corruption trial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whatistandfor.co\/LeFachicette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}