Jury begins deliberations in Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial

(NEW YORK) — A jury in Manhattan federal court began deliberations Friday afternoon in the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, who faces 16 felony counts, including bribery, extortion, wire fraud and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.

More than three dozen witnesses testified in the New Jersey senator’s nearly two-month trial. Jurors held gold bars and saw envelopes of cash that prosecutors said Menendez took as bribes in exchange for official acts.

“The buck stops here. Thousands upon thousands of bucks stop here. It’s time to hold him responsible,” prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told jurors.

The defense insisted Menendez “did not take one single action due to a bribe” and blamed the senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, who the defense insisted shook down three New Jersey businessmen and kept it from her husband.

“That is her gold and her cash,” defense attorney Adam Fee said.

Prosecutors argued the Democratic congressman was no puppet of his wife.

“He wasn’t the one being led around and manipulated by Nadine,” Monteleoni said.

The trial exposed how top Egyptian officials allegedly gained access to Bob Menendez, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, through Nadine Menendez. Jurors saw photos of the senator dining with Egyptian intelligence officials. A staff member testified “it was weird” the senator had dinner and other encounters with the Egyptians that did not appear on his schedule.

“Made it a little bit more difficult because I didn’t know exactly who he was talking to or what information he had or didn’t have or who he might want to meet or where information was coming from,” the staff member, Sarah Arkin, testified.

Nadine Menendez faces a separate trial in the case and has pleaded not guilty.

The jury will return to court Monday to resume deliberations.

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