Small victory for defense in Menendez trial as FBI agent concedes he misspoke

Nancy Solomon

Published May 17, 2024

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US Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, arrives at Manhattan Federal Court, in New York City on May 15, 2024.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Nancy Solomon

Published May 17, 2024

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Sen. Robert Menendez scored a small win at his federal corruption trial on Friday when the FBI agent in charge of searching the Menendez home acknowledged that he was wrong when he testified that the senator’s suit jacket was hanging in a closet where cash and gold bars were found. The jacket, he said, was actually hanging on the back of the door in the bedroom, just inches from the closet in question.

The jacket’s whereabouts are central to Menendez's defense because the senator’s lawyers plan to argue that Menendez didn’t use his wife’s closet, or know what was stored inside it.

FBI Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros was the first witness at the corruption trial, and Friday was his second day on the stand. Federal prosecutors say the senator and his wife took more than $500,000 worth of bribes in exchange for helping three businessmen, as well as the Egyptian and Qatari governments. The senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, will stand trial separately because of health problems. .

Menendez’s lawyers say he will contest the prosecutor’s allegations, and argue Nadine Menendez merely accepted gifts and loans from her friends and the senator never offered any help in exchange.

On the first day of testimony, Kougemitros said a locked closet in the bedroom contained both men’s and women’s clothing, including the blazer. FBI agents found handwritten notes in the pocket of the blue blazer that were on U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus stationery — a fact they say shows the jacket belonged to the senator.

“You indicated it [the jacket] was found inside the locked closet,” Menendez's defense attorney Adam Fee told the agent. “You agree with me, these were not found in the locked closet?”

Kougemitros agreed, explaining that further review of the photos showed the suit jacket was not in the closet. Prosecutors said agents found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and gold jewelry in the closet.

In his testimony on Thursday, Kougemitros detailed the $486,461 in cash agents found in the home, including in the bedroom closet, in an office that appears to be used by the senator, and in a basement storage room. Agents also found 13 gold bars, Kougemitros testified.

Questioned again by prosecutors, the agent reconfirmed that during the raid they found a duffel bag with $100,000 in cash in the office that contained sports memorabilia and a model of the U.S. Capitol. The duffel bag also contained a folder with the senate emblem printed on it.

He had testified earlier that the FBI found four jackets hanging in the basement, two of which had the senator’s name embroidered on them, with cash in the pockets.

“Did you see the name Nadine on any of the jackets where you found cash?” Kougemitros was asked. He said no.

The prosecution’s second witness was a U.S. diplomat who works with the Department of Agriculture to promote American agricultural exports around the world. He was stationed in Cairo for four years, including 2018 and 2019, when Nadine and Bob Menendez were dating. It was during that time that Nadine Menendez introduced the senator to Wael Hana, an Egyptian-born businessman in New Jersey, according to the indictment.

The diplomat, James Bret Tate, testified that he was working to expand the number of U.S. businesses that were approved by Egypt to certify U.S. halal meat exports. He took a trip in 2019 with officials from Egypt, driving from Chicago to Denver, and touring meat processing plants.

But when he arrived in Washington, DC for meetings between the Department of Agriculture and the Egyptian officials, it quickly became clear they were only interested in Wael Hana’s business, IS EG Halal, Tate testified. Hana’s business had not submitted any requested documentation, and it was clear Hana knew nothing about halal certification, Tate testified.

Even so, Egypt soon gave Hana a monopoly on all halal certification exports to the country. “The U.S. government is generally opposed to monopolies,” Tate testified. “Competition is better for everyone.” He said the price of halal certification rose dramatically soon after Hana was given the monopoly.

Prosecutors plan to show that Menendez — with the help of his wife, who worked as an intermediary — agreed to help Egypt remove a hold on weapons sales from the United States. In exchange, prosecutors say Egypt agreed to give Hana the monopoly. Hana would profit handsomely, and give some of that profit to the Menendezes, prosecutors say.

Hana’s attorney Lawrence Lustberg told jurors in his opening statement that Hana never discussed a bribe, and that there is no evidence that he made any bribes. Lustberg said prosecutors are criminalizing gift giving and the generosity of a friend.

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Politics