Judge hunts for jurors in Sen. Bob Menendez's corruption trial

Jury selection resumed on Tuesday in U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's corruption trial, with the judge having difficulty finding jurors to assess the New Jersey Democrat's role in what federal prosecutors called a years-long bribery scheme.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein excused 27 prospective jurors from the trial, which he has said could last into July, and has excused more than five dozen after meeting with them privately outside his Manhattan courtroom over two days.

Menendez, 70, sat in the courtroom throughout the process, usually doing nothing and only occasionally reading or speaking with one of his lawyers.

Stein will ask questions to the remaining jury pool as a group later on Tuesday.

Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, faces 16 criminal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction.

He is being tried alongside two New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. Menendez's wife Nadine Menendez, 57, will be tried separately on July 8, after her lawyers said she had a serious medical condition that could require a long recovery.

All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty. The senator's lawyers have suggested in court papers that if he testified at his own trial, he may try to blame her for withholding information and letting him believe his actions were lawful.

Cash and gold bars

Prosecutors have accused the Menendezes of accepting several hundred thousands dollars of cash and gold bars, as well as a Mercedes-Benz convertible, in exchange for Menendez's providing political favors, and aid to the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

FBI agents who searched the Menendezes' home in June 2022 found much of the cash hidden inside clothing, closets and a safe, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Menendez promised to help Egypt obtain arms sales and other aid, helped Hana obtain a lucrative monopoly on certifying halal meat exports to Egypt, and tried to help Daibes obtain millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund.

Menendez was also accused of trying to interfere in a federal criminal case against Daibes in New Jersey, and in state criminal cases involving two associates of Jose Uribe, an insurance broker.

Uribe pleaded guilty in March to bribery and fraud charges in March and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

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Refusing to resign

Menendez, a senator since 2006, has suggested he would try if acquitted to win a fourth full Senate term.

But recent polls of voters in Democratic-leaning New Jersey show overwhelming disapproval of Menendez's job performance, suggesting that any reelection bid would be a long shot.

Menendez has resisted calls to resign from across the political spectrum, but gave up leadership of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his indictment in September.

The senator was also tried in a bribery case in 2017, but that case ended in a mistrial.

Menendez's lawyers are awaiting a ruling from Stein on whether a psychiatrist can testify that the senator routinely stored cash in his home because of a "fear of scarcity."

They said this was a response to the Cuban government's seizing his family's assets before he was born, and his father's suicide after Menendez stopped paying his gambling debts.

Democrats and independents who caucus with them hold a 51-49 Senate majority. Republicans hope in November's election to flip several seats in races that are expected to be close.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Sen. Bob Menendez corruption trial jury selection resumes Tuesday