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Confessed crooked businessman says he's honest about bribes to NJ Sen. Menendez
By
Nancy Solomon
Published Jun 11, 2024
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Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
By
Nancy Solomon
Published Jun 11, 2024
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Defense attorneys grilled the New Jersey businessman who testified that he bribed U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez in exchange for getting help with criminal investigations into his companies, looking to call into question whether he can be trusted to tell the truth.
Jose Uribe, who owns several trucking and insurance companies, pleaded guilty in the alleged bribery scheme earlier this year, and has traded his testimony in hopes of a lighter sentence. He testified for the prosecution over the last few days that he purchased a Mercedes-Benz in 2019 for Nadine Menendez, now the senator’s wife, in exchange for help getting the investigations dropped.
Prosecutors say that attempted help came in the form of a meeting with then-New Jersey state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, which Grewal described on the stand last week. Uribe has said the the senator assured him following that meeting “there is nothing there,” though Grewal testified last week that he did not intervene in the case.
Uribe also testified that Menendez told him he had “saved your little a--” when the men went out to celebrate the completion of their deal. Prosecutors allege the senator took cash and lavish gifts from Uribe and two other businessmen, and did favors for them and foreign governments.
Uribe met Nadine and Bob Menendez shortly before he purchased the Mercedes, because Wael Hana, one of two other businessmen charged in the case who are being tried along with the senator, told him he had a connection to the couple and he could obtain help with his criminal cases if he was willing to pay, Uribe testified.
Ricardo Solano, an attorney for Hana, pushed back on that testimony on Tuesday, repeatedly questioning Uribe whether it was true that Hana had discussed bribery. Specifically, he focused on a meeting between the two men at Il Villaggio, a restaurant in Bergen County.
“There was no mention of a bribe, is that correct?” Solano asked about the help Hana offered to Uribe. “You didn’t know if it was legal or illegal.”
“That is correct,” Uribe replied. But each time Solano tried to show the jury that Hana never suggested a bribe, Uribe stuck to his testimony that Hana had told him it would take something on the order of $200,000 to get Menendez to make the case go away.
Solano also zeroed in on a text exchange between Uribe and Nadine Menendez, who was dating the senator at the time and was then known as Nadine Arslanian. Her home was under foreclosure and she was upset that Hana had promised to make the back payments, but hadn’t done it yet, according to the texts, which prosecutors have entered into evidence in the case. In a long text to Uribe, she said she would pay him back.
That is key to Hana’s defense because his attorneys are arguing that he was a good friend who was generous and trying to help, and the mortgage payments were a loan.
“No, they were not a loan,” Uribe testified. He also said Nadine needed to make arrangements with her bank to let Hana make the payments, but said they didn’t have a “loan agreement”
The majority of Solano’s attempts at undermining Uribe’s testimony centered on his prior crimes and whether he could be trusted to tell the truth. Uribe was convicted of insurance fraud and theft by deception in 2011, and his insurance license was revoked. But he continued to operate an insurance company by using the names of family members to hide that he was running the business, he has acknowledged in his testimony.
As part of his plea agreement, he also admitted to tax evasion. Over and over, Solano forced Uribe to admit that he had lied to his customers, investigators and prosecutors.
“I have lied in the past to protect my family, yes,” Uribe said after sustained pushing by Solano.
But when Solano suggested that he could be lying in this trial so that prosecutors will recommend a lighter sentence, Uribe refused to give that idea any credence.
“The truth is the truth,” Uribe said. “I tell the truth and the government decides if that is substantial.”
Tagged
public safety
new jersey
Politics
Nancy Solomon
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