New Jersey
Prosecutors in Sen. Menendez's corruption trial shift focus to Qatar • New Jersey Monitor
Sen. Bob Menendez saw his fortunes climb even before Fred Daibes snagged a $95 million investment from a Qatari royal for a planned development along the Hudson River, according to testimony Thursday in his federal bribery trial in Manhattan.
Over several months in 2021 and early 2022, New Jersey’s senior senator researched the value of gold and luxury watches online while his wife scheduled tours of multi-million-dollar mansions for sale in Alpine and Englewood Cliffs and accepted a gifted lounge chair and Formula 1 race tickets for her son.
At the center of it all was Daibes, acting so much like Santa Claus that Nadine Menendez texted him: “Thank you. Christmas in January.”
On the 21st day of Menendez’s trial Thursday, prosecutors focused on Daibes and their claims that he schemed to hook Qatari investors by bribing Menendez to publicly praise the small Arab country on the Persian Gulf.
Jurors heard from FBI special agent Paul Van Wie, who laid out a timeline of texts, calls, encrypted messages, and other communications that show Menendez connected Daibes with Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, whose brother is Qatar’s emir, and Ali Al Thawadi, the sheikh’s chief of staff. The sheikh heads the largest construction and real estate company in Qatar and advises the emir on investments in the U.S., testimony showed.
When the sheikh’s investment adviser learned Daibes had been federally charged in a 2018 bank fraud case and urged the sheikh to reconsider, Menendez called and met with the sheikh and other Qatari officials in what prosecutors suggested was an attempt to smooth things over.
“I hope that this will result in the favorable and mutually beneficial agreement that you both have been engaged in discussing,” Menendez wrote to bin Jassim in an encrypted WhatsApp message in January 2022.
To sweeten the deal for the Qataris, prosecutors say Menendez shepherded a resolution praising Qatar’s humanitarian work through the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he then chaired, and issued a related press release that he forwarded to Daibes first, texts showed.
“You might want to send it to them. I am just about to release,” the senator told Daibes.
Daibes did just that, assuring the Qatari officials “our mutual friend” would issue it within days.
“At last,” the sheikh responded.
“It’s very good,” his chief of staff agreed.
In May 2022, Daibes and Heritage Advisers, a London-based investment firm the sheikh founded, signed a $190 million deal, with the sheikh footing half of it, according to documents Van Wie presented.
Many of the messages and documents Van Wie presented Thursday, under questioning by prosecutor Paul Monteleoni, seemed intended to prove the quid pro quo part of their argument — revealing the bribes the Menendezes allegedly accepted for the senator’s intervention and influence.
One exchange showed Daibes connected Nadine Menendez with the Tenafly real estate agent who scheduled tours for her of two homes priced at over $4 million.
Another showed that Menendez himself asked Al Thawadi for the Formula 1 tickets, saying Nadine Menendez’s son and his fiancee wanted them.
“Thank you. He is thrilled and so is his mother,” the senator texted Al Thawadi after receiving the tickets.
Defense attorney Avi Weitzman cast doubt on some testimony, like prosecutors’ claim that Daibes gave Menendez a new recliner as a bribe when the senator struggled to heal from a shoulder injury. Van Wie acknowledged under Weitzman’s questioning that prosecutors didn’t show jurors all of the Menendezes’ messages with others involved, including one text suggesting the recliner was a used loaner or hand-me-down.
“That chair has saved so many people in our family!” Daibes’ sister texted Nadine Menendez.
As for the luxury watches, Daibes shared screenshots of Patek Philippe watches ranging in price from about $10,000 to almost $30,000 with Menendez in 2021, asking which he liked, Van Wie testified. But prosecutors offered no receipts or messages proving a purchase occurred, and investigators found no such watches during a June 2022 search of the couple’s Englewood Cliffs home, testimony showed.
Earlier Thursday, prosecutors focused on Menendez’s effort to derail the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s 2018 bank fraud probe of Daibes.
“He is FIXATED on it,” Nadine Menendez assured Daibes by text.
Philip Sellinger, New Jersey’s U.S. attorney, previously told jurors that Menendez asked him to “look at” prosecutors’ handling of Daibes’ case and ended their longtime friendship when Sellinger reported he had a conflict of interest, prompting his Department of Justice bosses to recuse him from the case in December 2021. The recusal left Sellinger’s first assistant, Vikas Khanna, in charge of Daibes’ case.
Thursday, Van Wie presented documents and messages showing that Menendez subsequently researched and communicated with Khanna. The documents also showed that Menendez admonished Daibes’ attorney on a January 2022 phone call for being a “wuss” and not pushing the U.S. Attorney’s Office aggressively enough to dismiss the case, and that Daibes rejected two plea offers before prosecutors agreed in February 2022 to Daibes’ request for probation.
“He is an amazing friend, and as loyal as they come,” Daibes gushed about the senator in an email to Nadine Menendez.
The trial is expected to resume Monday morning, with cross-examination of Van Wie continuing and Khanna and Sarah Arkin, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, taking the stand.
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It’s been nearly a decade and a half since the Brooklyn Nets moved out of New Jersey.
The organization has completely revamped its vibe since switching states, ditching the red, white and blue look for a very basic black and white colorway.
The Nets have also intermittently changed the colors of the banners hanging up in the Barclays Center from red, white and blue to black and white, much to the chagrin of traditional Nets fans.
Despite the Nets now playing in a bigger market and being far removed from their days in the Garden State, some fans seem to hope for the Nets to make their return across the river. New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill was asked about the matter.
“I mean, would I support it? I ask about it all the time,” Sherrill said. “I love the idea. So, I have been pressing for that. I haven’t made a lot of headway yet; you know, maybe in my second 100 days.
“But I do think there is some work being done for some — I don’t know if I’m allowed to say too much about it — but some people are working on some different sports coming into the Rock.”
As time went on, the Nets eventually started to embrace more of their New Jersey roots, which started when they rocked a clean tie-dye jersey from the 90s during the 2020-21 season.
The next season, the Nets followed it up with uniforms commemorating their run in the 2000s, when the team got to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 and endlessly broke the ESPN top 10 with each crazy Jason Kidd assist and Vince Carter dunk.
It’s fitting that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the latter of whom grew up in New Jersey as a Nets fan, got to rock these uniforms, helping boost the popularity of the New Jersey brand to a wide array of fans.
True Nets fans embraced the Continental Airlines Arena/Izod Center and the swamps of East Rutherford, getting to witness a winning basketball team for a fraction of the cost of the team mired in dysfunction that happened to play their home games at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Not many marquee free agents would have signed up to play in New Jersey, but real fans remember the good times in the swamps, especially with Sly the Fox as the team’s mascot. Those times deserve to be remembered properly.
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ATLANTIC COUNTY, N.J. (WPVI) — Drivers heading to the shore on Friday afternoon saw slow-moving traffic for several miles coming off the Walt Whitman bridge, but many travelers said the start of the holiday weekend was smoother than they anticipated.
Aldara Madden, who was traveling with her friend Elana Maser, said the trip moved faster than she expected.
“I was expecting it to take a lot longer,” she said.
Maser added that they left school early to avoid delays.
“My mom and I do that every year and then we always stop here as our little pre-down the shore,” she said.
Others shared similar experiences.
“I’m coming from Bucks County, so I was worried there was gonna be some traffic but it really wasn’t bad at all,” said Erin McFadden of Churchville, who was headed to Ocean City.
AAA reported that while slightly more people are traveling by car this year compared to last, 2026 is projected to have the lowest year-over-year travel growth rate in more than a decade, excluding the steep drop seen in 2020 during the pandemic.
The organization attributes the slowdown largely to concerns over rising prices.
“Gas is ridiculously expensive and I think all the time before going anywhere these days,” said Debbie Maser of Philadelphia. “But this is our happy place and nothing can keep us away.”
A dreary weekend forecast may also be influencing travel patterns.
“I was thinking that, I wonder if there’ll be less congestion on the roads because of the weather,” said Kyra Wolin of Massachusetts. “It’s not looking to be too good this weekend with the rain.”
Still, many shore-bound travelers said tradition outweighs any concerns about rain or crowds.
“No not at all. You go down. You get it done,” said George Miller of Lansdale.
Eric Wolin of Massachusetts agreed: “Never, never. Margate’s a special place for us.”
As the unofficial start of summer begins, travelers said they remain committed to kicking off the season in their favorite spots, not letting rain, traffic, or high prices keep them away.
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This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.
From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.
As summer begins, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is urging residents to limit lawn watering, and hand water flowers and shrubs as a drought warning continues. The warning, in place since December 2025, could turn into a drought emergency if conditions do not improve. The state has suffered eight consecutive months of below-normal rainfall, according to officials.
“New Jersey is experiencing a chronic water supply drought, the scale of which we haven’t seen in more than twenty years,” state geologist Steven Domber said in a statement issued earlier this month. “The indicators that we track closely are showing persistently dry conditions. With uncertainty for rainfall in the coming months, we need residents to conserve water today, to ensure we have enough to sustain our needs over the summer.”
The Department of Environmental Protection uses a variety of indicators to determine drought levels, including precipitation, stream flows, reservoir levels, ground water levels and demand.
In addition to the last two months, officials say, the state “experienced below normal precipitation for 20 of the last 24 months since September 2024,” despite heavy snowfall events this past winter that helped restore reservoirs in North Jersey.
“While we saw a little relief over the winter, New Jersey is feeling the effects of nearly two years of below-normal precipitation,” Sherrill said in a statement earlier this month. She urged residents to voluntarily conserve water.
New Jersey state climatologist David Robinson said that since precipitation has been below normal for most of the last 24 months, the recent winter weather did not provide enough water to help restore streams and groundwater.
Should a drought emergency be declared, mandatory water restrictions would be put in place. The last drought emergency lasted almost a year, between March 2002 and January 2003.
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