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Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez faces second federal corruption trial with jury selection starting Monday

Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez faces second federal corruption trial with jury selection starting Monday

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is facing his second federal corruption trial in a decade, as jury selection is scheduled to begin in Manhattan federal court on Monday, this time related to charges alleging that he acted to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar.  The 70-year-old New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine Menendez, are accused of accepting bribes from three wealthy businessmen – real estate developer Fred Daibes, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe – in his home state and performing a variety of favors in return, including meddling in criminal investigations and taking actions benefiting the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Menendez, 70, will stand trial along with two of the businessmen, Daibes and Wael Hana. All three have pleaded not guilty. Uribe has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the other defendants. A trial for the senator’s wife, who is also charged, is delayed until at least July for health reasons.  The three-term senator has announced he will not be seeking reelection on the Democratic ticket this fall, although he has not ruled out running as an independent. That could complicate things for Democrats who have a narrow edge in the U.S. Senate and can hardly afford the prospect of a three-way election in the Democratic stronghold of New Jersey. TRUMP, HOUSE DEMS DEFEND TEXAS CONGRESSMAN ACCUSED OF ACCEPTING MEXICAN BRIBES, BUT FOR VERY DIFFERENT REASONS After charges were announced in September, Menendez was forced out of his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  The senator’s political career had its first major crisis in 2015 when he was indicted on charges involving a wealthy Florida eye doctor accused of buying Menendez’s influence through luxury vacations and campaign contributions. At the time, Menendez resolutely denied the charges and vowed not to quit the Senate. A trial ended in 2017 with a deadlocked jury, and federal prosecutors in New Jersey abandoned the case. Menendez not only stayed in Congress, he was reelected and kept his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. He married Nadine Menendez in 2020 after the couple dated for two years. In the new case, federal prosecutors stressed that FBI agents who searched the senator’s New Jersey home allegedly found a stash of gold bars, worth more than $100,000, and more than $486,000 in cash, some of it stuffed into the pockets of clothing hanging in his closets in a raid two years ago.  Menendez has remained in the Senate amid this latest indictment, ignoring calls for him to step down before his six-year term ends Jan. 3. Unlike in 2015, though, his party has largely abandoned him. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and others called on him to resign. Democratic Rep. Andy Kim launched a campaign for Menendez’s seat the day after the indictment. SEN BOB MENENDEZ MAY BLAME HIS WIFE NADINE DURING FEDERAL CORRUPTION TRIAL: COURT DOCS His fellow Democrats in Washington, D.C., appear to have already written him off, encouraging him repeatedly to resign, but Menendez has maintained a defiant stance.  “I am innocent and will prove it no matter how many charges they continue to pile on,” he said after the indictment against him was updated again in early March to add charges that he tried to obstruct the investigation.  Besides charges including bribery, extortion, fraud and obstruction of justice, Menendez also is charged with acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.  Menendez has vigorously denied doing anything unusual in his dealings with foreign officials. The senator’s lawyers in court papers have said they plan to explain that Menendez had no knowledge of some of what occurred because his wife, who allegedly often served as a conduit between the men paying the bribes, kept him in the dark. According to an indictment, Daibes delivered gold bars and cash to Menendez and his wife to get the senator’s help with a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, prompting Menendez to act in ways favorable to Qatar’s government. The indictment also said Menendez did things benefiting Egyptian officials in exchange for bribes from Hana, as the businessman secured a valuable deal with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements. In pleading guilty several weeks ago, Uribe admitted buying Menendez’s wife a Mercedes-Benz to get the senator’s help to influence criminal investigations involving his business associates. Judge Sidney H. Stein has rejected Menendez’s attempt to claim legislative immunity protects him from the charges. The judge has yet to rule on whether the defense can call a psychiatrist to show Menendez habitually stored cash in his home as a “fear of scarcity” response to family stories about how their savings were confiscated in the Communist revolution in Cuba, before he was born, and because of financial problems stemming from the gambling problem of his father, a struggling carpenter. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

NY v. Trump trial resumes with ‘star witness’ Michael Cohen expected to take the stand

NY v. Trump trial resumes with ‘star witness’ Michael Cohen expected to take the stand

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand Monday morning to testify in the criminal trial of former President Trump.  Cohen is said to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team as they try to prove the former president falsified business records related to a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence.  Cohen, who once famously said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, his former longtime boss and friend, will testify against him about his role in arranging the hush money payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to keep her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump in the early 2000s from becoming public.  MICHAEL COHEN TO TESTIFY IN TRUMP TRIAL ON MONDAY Trump, for years, has denied the encounter with Daniels ever happened. Trump later made several payments of $35,000 to Cohen, who was serving as his personal attorney at the time. The payments totaled $420,000.  The payments from Trump to Cohen are the basis for Bragg’s indictment of Trump. Bragg is trying to prove that the payments were reimbursements to Cohen for the hush money payment to Daniels.  But Trump defense attorneys maintain that the $35,000 payments were “not a payback,” but were, instead, legal payments.  In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said, “If falsifying a business record is because a bookkeeper wrote down ‘legal expense’ in paying a legal fee, that’s not falsifying. HOUSE GOP GOES AFTER ‘CONVICTED LIAR’ MICHAEL COHEN, URGES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO INVESTIGATE RECENT LIES “They call it a legal expense, and that’s what it was,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “It was a legal expense. It was legal fees paid to a lawyer. That’s called a legal expense.”  Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order on the former president, preventing him from speaking about any witnesses. Trump’s legal team has argued that is a violation of his First Amendment rights and filed an appeal.  Trump has already been fined $10,000 for violating the gag order — $1,000 per violation — and has been threatened with jail time should he violate the order again.  While Cohen is not under any gag order, Merchan on Friday directed prosecutors to tell Cohen not to make statements about Trump or the case.  Merchan said he would “direct the people to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements” about the case or Trump. Merchan told prosecutors to inform Cohen the direction was coming from the bench. TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations, making false statements to Congress and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison.  House Republicans, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, have referred Cohen to the Justice Department for investigation, saying he should be subject to further prosecution for lying to Congress.  Republicans say that, most recently, Cohen “admitted to lying to Congress” during his testimony in the Letitia James case against Trump.  When asked if he was being “honest” in front of the House Intelligence Committee in February 2019, Cohen testified, “No.” “So, you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?” Trump attorney Alina Habba asked him. “Yes,” Cohen replied.

Republican says Biden has ‘strengthened’ Hamas by withholding aid from Israel: ‘Completely incompetent’

Republican says Biden has ‘strengthened’ Hamas by withholding aid from Israel: ‘Completely incompetent’

A Republican senator hammered President Biden on Sunday for withholding weapons from Israel, which he claimed has inadvertently “strengthened” the Hamas terror group. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-NE, said the Biden administration’s decision to withhold high payload bombs from Israel “just demonstrates their incompetence.” He also compared the current conflict with Hamas to how Biden handled Afghanistan, saying he was “absolutely mismanaging this.” “I mean, the administration said they had an ironclad friendship with Israel, and now they’re demonstrating that it doesn’t mean too much,” said Ricketts, also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, during a segment of FOX Report with Jon Scott. “Secretary [Antony] Blinken was talking about how we’ve got to offer them a better way. A better way, like Afghanistan. How well did that work out? He’s looking for a credible plan for protecting civilians, that they wouldn’t know a credible plan if it came up and bit them on the behind. These people are completely incompetent and they’re absolutely mismanaging this.” The Republican also said the president’s tactic was playing into the hands of terrorists: “Hamas was negotiating to come up with a cease fire to return the hostages. And then Biden announces he’s going to withhold weapons. And Hamas is like, well, my hand has just been strengthened. Why would I negotiate now?” LIZ CHENEY JOINS OLD FOE TRUMP IN PUBLIC SLAM OF BIDEN’S LATEST MOVE IN ISRAEL: ‘WRONG AND DANGEROUS’ Ricketts’ comment came after Biden urged Israel’s government not to carry out a ground invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, which is currently home to more than a million Palestinians who fled other parts of the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war with Hamas. On Israel’s Rafah offensive, the Nebraska Republican claimed the Jewish country was being cautious about avoiding civilian deaths. “There’s 4 or 5 [Hamas] battalions left in Rafah. They all have to be destroyed,” Ricketts said. “The leadership needs to be killed. And frankly, Israel is doing more than any nation I can think of as far as trying to avoid civilian casualties.” Biden’s own threats to withhold offensive aid from Israel has prompted wide criticism, including from the House Oversight Committee, which is launching an investigation to see if the president has violated the law. BLINKEN DELIVERS STRONGEST PUBLIC REBUKE OF ISRAEL YET: ‘GET OUT OF GAZA’ Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., questioned both the decision-making process and the timing of the announcement itself in a letter to President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. He also requested a congressional briefing from the White House National Security Council in addition to communications and other documents related to discussions about pausing any kind of aid to Israel, with a deadline of May 24. “The Committee is alarmed by the Biden administration’s willingness to play political games with U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance going to Israel,” Comer wrote in a letter signed by Republicans on the Oversight Committee. “On May 9, 2024, President Biden made public that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use in its offensive on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza.” “Further reporting indicates that the National Security Council actively chose to withhold this information from the public eye for days, in part so that news of the decision would not be known when President Biden delivered a speech touting support for Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Committee seeks a briefing, as well as documents and information related to this decision, including any legal justification for withholding essential supplies from Israel in its fight against Hamas terrorists who still have Israeli and American hostages.” Former President Trump and several of his supporters in Congress have accused Biden of initiating a quid pro quo with Israel — conditioning or withholding aid to Israel in order to change its foreign policy. Trump was impeached for threatening to withhold money from Ukraine, although the funding was ultimately not withheld.  Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.