Gold Bars, a Secret Recording and a Senate Seat Up for Grabs

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There's a criminal trial that's playing out right now that could influence how Washington works next year, and it's not the one that you're thinking about.

The corruption trial of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Gold bars and cash found in the home he shared with his wife, hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is standing trial on charges of bribery and acting as an agent of Egypt. He's been in a New York court the past few weeks. Bloomberg's Patricia Hurtado has been there covering it.

I was talking to a couple of lawyers I know in Manhattan, fed they're in a securities fraud case, and they were telling me they couldn't believe that across the street is a former US president on trial. You have a former congressman that's going to face trial in September. In the courthouse they were in you have a senator. They were basically shrugging, you know, like who would have laved this?

It feels like twenty twenty four is turning into a tug of war over which major party is the least well criminal the first.

Former president of the United States to be indicted.

Santo's quote sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacies for his own personal financial profit.

Texas Congressman Henry Quaar and his wife were facing conspiracy and bribery charges.

And Menendez's trial could shred the Democratic Party argument that they're elected officials stay above board in a way that Republicans don't. It isn't just the latest in a slew of political criminal indictments. The case itself feels like it's straight out of a TV crime drama. Alleged bribery, gold bars, secret FBI recordings at steakhouses, and all that drama. Doesn't just matter to Menendez's career. It could also have major implications for Democrats, their hold of the Senate, and the

So Bob menandas has been a core player in Democratic politics for decades.

Megan Scully is the team leader for Bloomberg's Congress coverage.

He was in the House before he was in the Senate. He's a household name in New Jersey. His son is a sitting House Democrat. Prior to this, He's close with Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer and was considered a bit of a statesman in the Senate, very well versed in foreign affairs. He also was fairly moderate and was able to negotiate with Republicans.

And he was also a representative for the Hispanic community.

Yes, absolutely, you know he's pushed the administration for more Hispanic nominees to post, such as the Federal Reserve.

When Menendez won his first Senate election in two thousand and six, you could hear him playing up his reputation as a fighter for the everyman.

Only in America and especially in New Jersey could one generation come seeking opportunity for their family, and now their child is elected to create opportunity for every family.

In the years since, he's worked his way up through the ranks of Congress, he was.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Which is a plumb post.

A plumb post, yes, and one in which he was able to enrich himself by taking these bribes allegedly. I should note he has pleaded not guilty.

It's worth noting that Menendez's record before this trial was not completely clear. In twenty fifteen, he was charged with corruption and bribery charges that he denied. That trial ended two years later in a hung jury. Now Menendez is back in court on charges of bribery and acting as an agent of Egypt. Remember this is all while he was serving on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, weighing in on then President Donald Trump's aggressive u turn on

It's like a movie, and you know, it is interesting. Why is a guy who's so well respected doing these backroom deals and having these discussions at restaurants and at the corner smoking cigars. I mean, the jury's got to be thinking what's really going on?

So let's get into it. Here's what Menendez is being charged with now.

The seven year old Democrat has pled not guilty to multiple charges of bribery, extortion, fraud, and obstruction of justice.

The government accuses Menendez of accepting bribes to help businessman in New Jersey win influence, as well as basically acting to help the government of Egypt.

At the center of this case are three New Jersey businessmen.

Fred Dabs, Jose Urube, and While Hanna and these guys were all friends with each other.

Back in twenty eighteen, Arabe was worried about being investigated for insurance fraud, so were some other people close to him. People erbe treated like family, and.

He wanted this all to go away. So the allegations are, Hanna said, I know somebody I know Nadine, her boyfriend is the senator who can quote unquote make it go away for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Nadine was Menendez's girlfriend at the time. She's now his wife, and according to the FBI, she went on to facilitate a series of meetings between Menendez and the businessmen. Menendez an elected official whose salary is paid by taxpayers.

Basically all their meetings transpire at steakhouse rants in New Jersey or DC, where they're always meeting over drinks laughs.

Prosecutors have presented text messages that allegedly showed Nadine setting up those meetings. In other messages, she seems to be dropping not so subtle hints about the way Erbe can curry favor.

Nadine had been in a car accident and totaled her Mercedes, so she needed a new car, and she let it be known to these businessmen, and basically Urbe steps up to the need and basically gives her an envelope stuffed with fifteen thousand dollars in cash as a down payment for the car, and Nadine at one point professed that she.

Was going to help Arabe.

A couple of times the car payment's late and he rushes in to save the day, so she says things like to the effect you are my brother. I will never forget this.

The jury also saw a video of one of these steakhouse dinners from an undercover FBI recording, and they've been hearing testimony from Urbe himself. In exchange for the money and gifts, Urbe said he got to meet with Senator Menandez and give him the names of the people being investigated for that insurance fraud. The problem he wanted to go away.

And he describes being summoned to Nadine Menendez's home to give the names to Menendez and the senators. Sitting there drinking a glass of Grandmagne and smoking a cigar, he says that Menandez, he has a little bell at the table, and he rings the bell to summon Nadine and says, mono more, mona more, please come here, and Nadine rushes in, and he asks for paper, and then Urbe writes down the names of all the individuals that are being investigated.

It's like something straight out of the Sopranos. The FBI also alleges that Menendez gave sensitive US information to the Egyptian government in exchange for money. In twenty twenty two, the FBI raided the Menendez home. They found Nadine's Mercedes Benz parked in the garage, But that wasn't all.

Evidence that needs explaining includes more than one hundred thousand dollars worth of gold bars and over four hundred and eighty six thousand dollars in cash.

Thirteen gold bars and a lot of money.

There was so much money the FBI realized they wouldn't be able to use a regular counter, so they had to get one of those kind that they use at banks that you see are featured in movies, the high speed processing money counters.

If you can believe.

That Menendez has pleaded not guilty, he says he keeps his personal savings in cash because of his family history in Cuba. His lawyers have tried to discredit urubae and pin all of this on his wife, Nadine. Menendez is expected to be in court for the next few weeks, but in the meantime, he's also staring down the barrel of a political campaign because, and here's where things might sound familiar, amid a mountain of legal troubles, he's thrown his hat back into the political ring.

This seat was never considered to be in play, and now it is on the map coming up.

What that could mean for Democrats and what criminal cases like Menendez is mean for government trust. When these charges came out against Senator Bob Menendez, members of his party and longtime friends pressured him to step down from his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Even Corey Booker, a fellow New Jersey Democrat has called for his resignation. He's done it gently, saying thank you to the Senator for his years of service to the state, but could you please step down.

That's Bloomberg's congres team leader Megan Scully. Again, Menendez obliged. He announced that he would not be seeking re election as a Democrat, but then.

He announced he's running as an independent. This really kind of changes the calculus for the Senate map for Democrats. Democrats are facing an uphill battle. They have a narrow majority in the Senate right now. The map this year, because only a third of the Senate is running, the map is much more favorable to Republicans. So Democrats are already defending their seats in states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin,

Essentially, meaning if just eight percent of the voters who would have voted for Andy Kim, the Democrat who's running to replace Menendez, vote for Bob Menendez instead, he could spoil this long held Democratic Senate seat for the party.

Let's also note that this is New Jersey, a state that is not unfamiliar with political corruption, and it becomes a bit of a wild card. Can Bob Menendez find eight percent of the vote to throw this election into chaos quite potentially, So it suddenly becomes a much more interesting race, and a race in which Democrats are going to need to spend that's expensive because you're talking about media markets in Pennsylvania, like outside of Philly and in

And it's not just putting Democratic control of a Senate at risk. Megan says, New Jersey is becoming a focal point for the presidential campaign.

Republicans are somewhat gleeful that this is happening. Steve Daanz, who is a Senator from Montana who is in charge of the Senate Republicans campaign effort, responded to a reporter question in a hallway recently with a smile and saying,

Plus it's an optics problem. Just this week, Hunter Biden was convicted for gun charges. Biden is not a politician. His conviction has nothing to do with governing. But Megan told me it's not clear voters are making that distinction.

What we've seen, you know, in polls and just anecdotally over the last several years, is voter trust in the government really going to an all time low. And we're in a period of first Right, we had the first former president ever convicted of a felony, and now we have the first child of sitting president convicted of a felony, and that certainly doesn't help make the case that one party is above the other.

Twenty twenty four is all of a sudden turning into this election of trying to prove which party is more criminal than the other. Right, I'm curious to your thoughts on what this means for Republicans trying to cast the current Justice Department under Biden as doing Biden's political bidding. If a member of his own party, and then a member of his family are also being tried and convicted.

Well, actually members of his own party plural, because Henry Quaiar, a Democrat from southern Texas, is also under indictment for bribery charges, taking about six hundred thousand dollars. So I think it undercuts that argument that Justice Department investigations are partisan and purely political in nature. Certainly, none of these cases have drawn as much attention as the conviction of

By the time Menendez's trial ends, his wife Nadine could be taking the stand, former President Trump's conviction could be back in court on appeal, and George Santos will be gearing up for his court date. I'm curious, do you think that now as a country, voters need to get used to the fact that we're going to have candidates with legal troubles in front of us all the time.

I think that the whole nature of politics has changed since Trump ran for president for the first time in twenty fifteen and went down those golden escalators and things that we thought were points of no return. As a voting population, I think we've become immune to a lot of things that were once considered the third rail in politics, and federal convictions might be the new third rail that

Thanks for listening to the Big Take DC podcast from bloomber News. I'm Salaija Mosen. This episode was produced by Julia Press. It was mixed by Blake Maples and fact checked by Audrianna Tapia. It was edited by Aaron Edwards, David Borakis, and Wendy Benjaminson, who provides editorial direction with Elizabeth Ponso, Naomi Shaven, and Kim Gettelson are our senior producers. Nicole beemster Bower is our executive producer. Sage Bauman is