New Jersey
Did he take bribes, or was he duped by his wife? Arguments under way in Menendez trial • New Jersey Monitor
After a slow start, Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial hit warp speed Wednesday, with the defense team using opening arguments to blame everything on his wife and ending the day by demanding a mistrial.
With 12 jurors and six alternates seated after two and a half days of questioning, the case kicked off after lunchtime with prosecutor Lara Pomerantz methodically outlining the 18-count indictment against Menendez — a Democrat and New Jersey’s senior senator — and two of his co-defendants, businessman Wael Hana and Edgewater real estate developer Fred Daibes.
“For years, Robert Menendez abused his position to feed his own greed and to keep his wife happy,” Pomerantz said. “Menendez put his power up for sale, and Hana and Daibes were more than happy to buy it.”
But defense attorney Avi Weitzman told the jury that there were “innocent explanations” for all of prosecutors’ accusations, and he quickly cut to what might be the heart of his defense — Menendez’s claim that his wife, Nadine, kept him in the dark about the gold bars, cash, luxury car, and other bribes she allegedly took from Hana, Daibes, and a third co-defendant Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty in March.
“The real question for you is: What did Bob know?” Weitzman told the jury.
Daibes and Hana are standing trial alongside Menendez, and their attorneys are expected to deliver their opening statements Thursday morning. Nadine Menendez was charged too, but U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein previously postponed her trial to July because she has a medical issue.
The senator’s wife
Despite her absence in the courtroom in Manhattan, Nadine Menendez loomed large over the trial Wednesday, with both prosecutors and the senator’s defense team repeatedly referring to her and her role in a bribery scheme that prosecutors say stretched back to 2018, when the couple began dating and a year after Sen. Menendez’s last corruption trial ended with a hung jury.
Pomerantz painted her as the insulation Menendez put between himself and his alleged benefactors, saying Nadine’s role as go-between gave the senator plausible deniability.
“Menendez was careful when he was committing crimes,” she said. “He was smart enough not to send too many texts. Instead, he had Nadine do that for him.”
Weitzman, though, portrayed her as a greedy manipulator who took gold, cash, and other bribes without her husband’s knowledge. The couple had separate finances, lived separately until April 2020, and have largely led separate lives since then, and FBI agents found all the gold bars in her locked closet, Weitzman said.
While the 70-year-old senator knew his wife had gold bars, he thought they were an inheritance from her family, who had built a fortune in the Persian rug business, he added. Instead, he said, Nadine had always been financially supported by other people, including a previous husband and by her wealthy family, and consequently “tried to get cash and assets any which way she could,” Weitzman said.
“I’ll acknowledge it smells a bit weird,” he said of what he called “the green and gold elephant in the room.”
Besides gold, investigators also found more than $400,000 stuffed in envelopes, jacket pockets, and shoes all over the couple’s home. Weitzman attributed that hoarded cash to the senator’s habit — forged after his family fled with nothing from Cuba in the 1950s — of making monthly withdrawals of $400 to $500 for decades and keeping the cash at home.
Prosecutors say the riches were corrupt payments for official actions that only a senator could deliver.
“Quid pro quo — this for that,” Pomerantz repeated throughout her opening statements.
Specifically, prosecutors have accused Menendez of taking gold, cash, and a no-show, “sham job” for Nadine Menendez from her longtime friend Hana to help Hana secure a monopoly on importing halal meat to Egypt.
“Hana didn’t actually have any experience in this business, but what he did have was a U.S. senator in his pocket,” Pomerantz said.
In exchange, Menendez also provided sensitive information about staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and even ghost-wrote a letter from an Egyptian official to U.S. lawmakers who had held up millions in military arms and aid to Egypt over concerns about human rights abuses there, prosecutors allege.
Menendez also tried to disrupt the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey’s prosecution of Daibes and a fraud investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office involving Uribe, an insurance broker who was friends with Hana, prosecutors said.
In exchange, Uribe gave Nadine $15,000 in cash in a parking lot as a down payment on a $60,000 Mercedes Benz convertible and continued to make monthly payments afterward for years, Pomerantz said.
“This was not politics as usual. It was politics for profit,” she said. “Robert Menendez was a United States senator on the take, motivated by greed and focused on how much he could put in his own pocket, and in his wife’s pocket.”
Weitzman insisted prosecutors were “wrong, dead wrong.”
Menendez took no bribes and never acted as a foreign agent for any government, he said.
“The actions Senator Menendez took were actions on behalf of constituents,” he said.
His interactions with Egyptian and Qatari officials were merely him “engaging in diplomacy on behalf of the U.S. government,” he added.
Weitzman urged jurors to remember Menendez’s long history of public service. Menendez has served in the Senate since 2006, in the House from 1993 to 2006, and in the New Jersey Legislature and Union City politics before that.
“He’s an American patriot,” Weitzman said.
About that mistrial motion
Stein rejected defense attorney Adam Fee’s argument that Pomerantz tainted jurors during her opening statements by implying that Menendez agreed to publicly support Qatar to help Daibes land an investment from a member of Qatar’s royal family in exchange for gold bars and cash.
Fee accused Pomerantz of violating Stein’s order that prosecutors couldn’t discuss the substance of a resolution supporting Qatar that Daibes allegedly urged Menendez to introduce to help him secure the investment.
“This is angels dancing on the head of a pin, your honor. They are injecting this case with that inference,” Fee said.
But after a heated back-and-forth between Fee and prosecutor Daniel Richenthal, Stein denied the mistrial motion.
“There’s no basis for it,” he said.
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Trump signs TrumpIRA order to broaden access to retirement savings
Trump signs executive order creating TrumpIRA.gov, which workers whose employers don’t offer 401(k) plans can use to enroll in a retirement plan.
New survey data released May 13 suggests affordability pressures are increasingly shaping whether older New Jersey residents stay or leave the state.
More than one-third of residents age 45 and older – 35% – said they have considered leaving New Jersey in the past year, according to a new AARP New Jersey “Vital Voices” survey. Among those weighing a move, 67% said the high cost of living is a primary reason.
The findings come as state lawmakers continue discussions centered on property taxes, utility costs and policies aimed at helping residents age in place.
“New Jersey should be a place where people can afford to grow older, not a place they feel forced to leave,” Chris Widelo, state director of AARP New Jersey, said in a statement. “Right now, rising costs are pushing people out.”
NJ property taxes, utilities driving concern
Affordability pressures extend across multiple key household costs.
Property taxes remain a central concern, with 53% of respondents citing them as a factor in considering leaving the state. The survey also found strong support for the Stay NJ program, which provides eligible homeowners with up to $6,500 in annual property tax relief.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said they support keeping the program intact, including maintaining the full benefit.
Rising utility costs are also a growing concern. About 89% of respondents said they are worried about increasing electricity bills, including a majority who said they are “very concerned.”
Support for caregiving relief, transparency
The survey highlights financial and logistical pressures facing caregivers, as more residents provide unpaid care for aging relatives.
More than half – 54% – of adults age 45 and older said they have served as unpaid caregivers. A majority said caregiving costs are a financial concern, and 86% expressed support for a caregiver tax credit.
Respondents also backed greater oversight of long-term care facilities. Strong majorities said they support requirements for nursing homes to disclose ownership, staffing levels and financial arrangements, along with greater transparency in how Medicaid funding is spent.
What it means for NJ budget talks
The findings underscore a broader policy debate in Trenton over how to address affordability challenges while maintaining services.
AARP New Jersey is urging state leaders to prioritize policies that reduce financial strain on older adults, including property tax relief, utility affordability and support for caregivers.
“This survey sends a clear message,” Widelo said. “If New Jersey wants to remain a place where people can age with dignity, we must focus on making it more affordable to stay.”
This story was created by reporter Joe Martino, jmartino@usatodayco.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more.
New Jersey
24-year-old elected mayor of NJ town as incumbent faced backlash in wake of massive warehouse fire
BELLEVILLE, New Jersey (WABC) — Frank Vélez, a 24-year-old town councilman, was elected as the new mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, on Tuesday.
Vélez may be young, but he has years of experience after he became involved in politics at 19 because his sister has special needs.
He has served on the school board in Belleville and the town council, and he was on the staff of former congressman Bill Pascrell.
Vélez said his win is a testament to hard work.
“We ran on getting back to the basics, the quality of life. Talking about responsible development and just talking about getting back to the priorities of working people,” Vélez said.
Incumbent Michael Melham faced backlash for his handling of a massive warehouse fire that shut down schools for more than a week.
There has been growing pessimism in town, highlighted by the massive 14-alarm warehouse fire this month that caused residents to evacuate and schools to shut down for days.
Parents and educators wrote a joint letter critical of Melham and school leadership for failing to communicate with parents during the emergency.
“In the hours and days following the fire, our community was left navigating uncertainty with little or no official instruction, resorting to group chats and scavenging social media for guidance or information, both of which should have been provided by the government that we entrust for such tasks,” the letter read in part.
Vélez said he’s ready to get to work.
“I feel grateful. I am humbled, and I’m just- just so ready to get to work as the next mayor of Belleville. And I’m so grateful to everyone for support. This was a resounding victory,” Vélez said.
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Round-trip bus fares for fans attending the 2026 FIFA World Cup have been cut by 75% as officials scrambled to secure backup transportation between the Big Apple and New Jersey, a new report said.
The New York/New Jersey host committee slashed fares from $80 to $20 for ticket holders traveling from three Manhattan locations to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ — and boosted capacity from 10,000 to 18,000 seats by adding yellow school buses for the eight World Cup games, The Athletic reported.
Buses will shuttle up to 18,000 people on non-school matchdays, and about 12,000 on school-day games between June 13 and July 19.
The steep price cut comes after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pumped $6 million into hacking down fares – with the investment setting aside about 20% of bus tickets for state residents who have purchased match tickets, the outlet reported.
Sources familiar with ticket sales told the Athletic that about 25% to 30% of tri-state area residents have already scooped up admissions for games at MetLife Stadium.
Alongside the major investment, Highland Fleets, which manages electric school bus fleets, worked with the New York City School Bus Umbrella Services – after contacting Hochul, the committee, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani – to secure additional buses, with about 300 hitting the road on peak matchdays.
The transit rides will leave from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a Midtown east location east of Grand Central Terminal, and a Midtown North location west of Central Park, the outlet reported.
Highland Fleets chief operating officer Ben Schutzman said the goal was to create “affordable and accessible” bus services during the World Cup, while a Mamdani spokesperson praised the mayor’s support for discounted rides for ticketholders.
“Mayor Mamdani supports any effort that makes transportation more affordable for New Yorkers – including reduced-cost buses for World Cup ticketholders,” the mayor’s rep told the outlet.
“We look forward to rolling out additional free and affordable events to ensure that all New Yorkers can enjoy the World Cup.”
The price-slashing effort comes days after New Jersey Transit trimmed its widely slammed World Cup fare hike by 30% after securing funding from “sponsors and other sources.”
The new price will be set at $105 for a round-trip ticket from Manhattan to MetLife after fares were bumped more than 1,000% from the standard $12.90 ticket to a whopping $150.
The eight games being played at the Garden State stadium are set for June 13, June 16, June 22, June 25, June 27, June 30, July 5, and July 19.
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