New photos admitted as evidence in the U.S. v. Menendez trial shed light on discoveries made by federal agents during their raid of the New Jersey senator’s home. 

Nearly $500,000 in cash and $150,000 in gold bars were strategically concealed throughout his cluttered New Jersey home, including a hefty stack of bills crammed inside a Timberland boot.

This week, jurors were presented with numerous photographs capturing scenes inside the Englewood Cliffs residence where the Democratic senator and his wife, Nadine, live. Nadine’s trial was delayed until July while she undergoes treatment for breast cancer.

Photographs showed cash stuffed inside designer bags and shoes, gold bars, multiple cell phones, jewelry, a cluttered closet filled with clothing and other items and a Mercedes-Benz that was allegedly one of the bribes given to the couple.

JURY PICKED, OPENING STATEMENTS BEGIN IN US V. MENENDEZ: ‘USE YOUR GOOD JUDGMENT’

The “sheer volume of bills” found posed a challenge for agents, prompting Special Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros to request assistance, he said during Thursday’s testimony. The task of manually tallying the $486,461 in bills proved daunting, necessitating the dispatch of two cash-counting machines from the FBI’s Manhattan office.

“I was directed that if I seized the cash, that I needed to count it in place,” Kougemitros said. “So, I called in reinforcements.”

Kougemitros said the city brought in the cash-counting machines and “with all the cash that we started finding, we counted it all.”

US V. MENENDEZ: DEM SENATOR’S CORRUPTION TRIAL KICKS OFF WITH SURPRISING DELAY

More than $600,000 in cash was found stashed around the New Jersey senator’s home. (Government Exhibit, U.S. v. Menendez)

In exchange for the cash, gold bars and other luxurious gifts, Menendez allegedly used his power as senator to benefit the governments of Qatar and Egypt and give business favors to three New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, co-defendants in the trial. 

All have pleaded not guilty except Uribe, who agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify at the trial. 

This is the second time in a decade Menendez has been accused in a federal corruption case. 

Five Southern California communities have been awarded federal grants totaling $3 million to help transform polluted “brownfield” sites into land that’s safe for development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced.

The Orange County Transportation Authority received a $1-million grant to conduct environmental site assessments and clean up its 18.78-acre OC Connect site in Garden Grove and Santa Ana, which is thought to be contaminated by an old railway and industrial waste. Part of the site is being considered for a future biking and hiking trail that would run along the former Pacific Electric right-of-way corridor, connecting the two cities’ downtowns and linking to the Santa Ana River Trail and the countywide OC Loop bikeway.

A $1.5-million grant will go to the Orange County Council of Governments, which will work with the cities of Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana and Garden Grove and the nonprofit housing organization NeighborWorks Orange County to review and assess brownfield sites, gather community input and develop plans to clean up contaminated parcels.

The OCCOG will focus much of its attention on three culturally diverse, mixed-income neighborhoods where residents face shortages of affordable housing and quality healthcare, and are disproportionately threatened by pollution: East Anaheim; Orange’s Marlboro neighborhood; the International West and Harbor Boulevard neighborhoods in Garden Grove; and Santa Ana’s Harbor Boulevard neighborhood.

The council has already identified three sites of interest — a 2.2-acre former metals manufacturing facility, a 10,000-square-foot vacant restaurant building and a 1.4-acre site that used to be home to a furniture manufacturer.

NeighborWorks Orange County, which has offered home-buyer education, homeowner resources and lending realty services since 1977 and has experience collaborating with local governments, will lead the brownfield assessments and study some parcels as possible locations for affordable housing construction, its president and chief executive, Helen O’Sullivan, said.

“If we can do something to make that land available and safe for us to build on affordably, then we’re going to want to include that in the assessment process and then work with the cities to plan on that,” O’Sullivan said.

This is the first time that the OCCOG has received a federal grant to study and plan for the cleanup of polluted properties in Orange County, Executive Director Marnie O’Brien Primmer said.

But it wouldn’t be the first time that cities in the region have transformed idle, previously polluted land into housing. In 2001, the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency spearheaded the purchase and cleanup of the site of a former Kwikset Corp. metal-plating plant that left behind petroleum, volatile organic compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, lead and other toxins. That effort paved the way for the construction of a housing complex with more than 300 units and an adjacent recreational space.

The City of Carson received its own $500,000 grant to conduct environmental site assessments in three census tracts where residents disproportionately have been affected by climate change, pollution, a lack of affordable housing, healthcare, clean water and effective wastewater systems. Two parcels will get top priority — a former gas station and a former landfill where an auto auction facility stands.

“Brownfield sites have long been a burden on our communities, and this funding will help to clean up these areas and revitalize them into thriving community assets that help attract jobs and enhance the quality of life for residents,” U.S. Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-San Pedro), who represents California’s 44th Congressional District, which includes Carson, said in a statement.

The EPA’s Brownfields Program started in 1995 to remove toxic waste from blighted properties to get the land ready for new uses. Its funding has increased thanks to a $1.5 billion infusion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative , whose goal is to direct more federal dollars to communities that are beset by underinvestment and pollution.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had a “scheduled, elective, and minimally invasive” nonsurgical procedure Friday evening at Walter Reed Medical Center as a follow-up for a bladder issue he had earlier this year, the Pentagon said in a release.

The procedure was unrelated to Austin’s cancer diagnosis.  

“During that period [Friday], Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks assumed the functions and duties of the Secretary of Defense and served as the Acting Secretary of Defense. Secretary Austin subsequently resumed his functions and duties as the Secretary of Defense at 8:25 p.m. ET and has returned home,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder stated in a release Friday night.

The Pentagon said the White House and Congress had been notified, and that Austin would be temporarily unable to perform his duties during the procedure. 

LLOYD AUSTIN GRILLED ABOUT LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer and hospitalized in December and January, undergoing two surgeries, but didn’t tell the White House for several days at the time. It took even longer for the public to find out. 

WHITE HOUSE ESTABLISHES GUIDELINES FOR CABINET NOTIFICATIONS FOLLOWING AUSTIN’S HOSPITALIZATION CONTROVERSY

Defense Secretary Austin will transfer power to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who will serve as the acting secretary of defense. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The situation led to criticism of the Pentagon’s lack of transparency and the White House established a new set of guidelines for when Cabinet heads are unable to do their job and have to delegate authority at the end of January. 

Some Republicans, including former President Trump, had called on Austin to resign.

Trump said on Truth Social in January that the defense secretary, “should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty. He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was or might be.” 

The White House said that Austin maintained Biden’s “full trust,” and in February the defense secretary apologized for his lack of transparency. 

President Biden said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin still had his “full trust” after some Republicans called on him to be fired or resign earlier this year.  (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I want to be crystal clear: We did not handle this right,” he said at the time. “And I did not handle this right. I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people.”

Austin was hospitalized again on Feb. 11 for a bladder issue weeks after he had returned to work following his hospitalizations for cancer treatment.  

The Pentagon added on Friday: “As highlighted in a Feb. 13 DoD news release, the Secretary’s bladder issue is not related to his cancer diagnosis and has had no effect on his excellent cancer prognosis. White House and congressional notifications have occurred.”

An update will be given following the procedure, the statement said.