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Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey faces his second, distinct bribery and corruption trial in seven years beginning Monday.

This new case is a sophisticated affair involving a number of gold bars, envelopes of money, a Mercedes and much more that, prosecutors say, the highly effective former chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee and his new spouse (they obtained married in the course of the alleged bribery scheme) obtained in change for serving to a halal meat monopoly, granting favors for individuals from Egypt and Qatar and attempting to affect a New Jersey prosecution.

Menendez, who has till June to announce if he’s operating for reelection, has pleaded not responsible and denied all the costs. He informed CNN’s Manu Raju on Capitol Hill final week, “I’m wanting ahead to proving my innocence.”

Additionally pleading not responsible and denying wrongdoing are his spouse Nadine, who can also be a named as a defendant, and two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, who’ve ties to Egypt and Qatar, respectively. One other man, New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe, alternatively, has pleaded responsible and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Right here’s what prosecutors say the senator and his spouse obtained:

Prosecutors say Hana and Daibes gave Menendez and his spouse gold bars, which have been seized by the FBI from the Menendez residence. After getting back from a visit to Egypt and getting a journey dwelling from the airport from Daibes’ driver, prosecutors say Menendez searched on-line for the worth of a gold bar.

The indictment consists of photographs of piles of money subsequent to envelopes unfold throughout jackets on which the senator’s identify is embroidered. There are piles of $20 payments and $50 payments in a single picture and $100 payments in one other picture.

Additionally they discovered money in closets, a secure and Nadine Menendez’s security deposit field. Among the envelopes, based on prosecutors, bore fingerprints or DNA belonging to Daibes or his driver.

Whole money found: Greater than $480,000 within the dwelling and greater than $70,000 within the security deposit field.

Later court docket filings that added costs within the case are extra particular, describing baggage full of money being discovered on high of hangers within the senator’s basement and stuffed into boots within the closet.

The 2019 car, which prosecutors worth at greater than $60,000, was parked within the driveway on the Menendez dwelling when it was raided.

The indictment describes Nadine Menendez acquiring $15,000 in money from Uribe in a parking zone the day earlier than she picked the car up and put $15,000 as a down fee. Uribe is alleged to have then hid his month-to-month financing funds for the car.

Later, after the raid, she would write Uribe a $21,000 verify, which prosecutors say was an effort at cleanup, making the reward seem like a mortgage.

Nadine Menendez wanted a brand new automotive, apparently after hitting and killing a jaywalker in Bogota, New Jersey, in December 2018. A police report was filed however she confronted no costs.

Prosecutors say the senator and his spouse additionally tried to cowl up round $23,000 in assist Nadine Menendez obtained from a halal meat firm owned by Hana that bailed her out of foreclosures on a mortgage. Reimbursement checks have been paid in December 2022, months after the preliminary raid on the senator’s home.

Hana’s firm paid Nadine Menendez $10,000 on three events, based on prosecutors. On the time, they allege, she was appearing as a kind of go-between for Egyptian officers, Hana and the senator.

Prosecutors describe a recorded dialog between Hana and a confidential supply through which Hana is described as acquiring $150,000 from a person to buy a automotive and an engagement ring for Nadine Menendez in change for the senator giving a “push” in a New Jersey prison case that saved the person three years.

Prosecutors mentioned of their February court docket submitting that Nadine Menendez organized for carpeting to be put in in her basement, apparently in change for organising dinners between the senator and officers – and in addition for his name, based on prosecutors, making an attempt to intrude in a New Jersey state prosecution.

The preliminary September 2023 indictment makes a number of mentions of furnishings and furnishings offered by Hana and Daibes however doesn’t go into specifics.

In a superseding indictment filed in March, prosecutors allege Menendez obtained tickets to Formulation One races in 2022 and 2023 for Nadine Menendez’s relative. Menendez made feedback supportive of Qatar throughout that interval and lobbied Qatari officers to put money into Daibes’ actual property enterprise, which they finally did.

Daibes is described as sending the senator photos of luxurious watches priced between roughly $10,000 and $24,000, however it’s not clear from the submitting if Menendez ever obtained a timepiece.

There’s a lengthy checklist of actions prosecutors say Menendez undertook in change for all of those alleged bribes. They allege Menendez, in his prior function as chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee:

… lobbied the US Division of Agriculture to keep up Hana’s monopoly on US halal meat exports to Egypt, despite the fact that it drove up costs.

… met with Egyptian officers in change for money.

… gave Hana not-classified but additionally not-public details about staff on the US embassy in Egypt.

… handed on details about US navy gross sales to Egypt to Hana and signed off on sure gross sales.

… lobbied Qataris on behalf of Daibes’ actual property scheme and supported resolutions within the Senate supportive of Qatar.

… tried to affect court docket circumstances in New Jersey associated to Uribe and his associates. Uribe, recall, is now cooperating with prosecutors.

… tried to disrupt a federal prosecution of Daibes.

Once more, Menendez denies all the fees, and the jury that can get to listen to his facet of the story will start to be chosen in New York beginning Monday. Nadine Menendez’s trial is slated for July.

Maybe Menendez and his spouse can convincingly argue the mortgage and automotive funds have been a mortgage. Maybe Menendez will argue he didn’t learn about funds associated to dinners and conferences organized by his spouse. The envelopes of money prosecutors say bore Daibes’ fingerprints could also be harder to elucidate.

Menendez is used to being underneath the microscope of federal prosecutors. The Division of Justice finally determined to not retry Menendez in 2018 after a earlier jury deadlocked over whether or not he accepted journeys and presents from a buddy, an ophthalmologist named Salomon Melgen.

Melgen went to jail in a separate Medicare fraud scheme, however that sentence was commuted by then-President Donald Trump after lobbying by Menendez on Melgen’s behalf.