Now he cares about his spouse!
Embattled New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez — who blamed his spouse for his authorized woes in an ongoing high-stakes bribery trial — rushed to her protection Friday after arriving at their Englewood Cliffs dwelling.
“Don’t be such a bloodsucker! She has most cancers,” Menendez snarled at a Publish reporter there to greet him.
After being pushed dwelling from court docket in a blue Honda Civic, Menendez entered the house carrying two white plastic luggage and two notebooks.
It was unclear if spouse Nadine Arslanian was inside.
Two days earlier, Menendez’s lawyer insisted in court docket that the pol knew nothing about gold bars hidden contained in the couple’s dwelling — as a substitute blaming the pol’s “dazzling, tall” spouse for stashing the trove away with out his information.
Menendez’s lawyer Avi Weitzman informed jurors in Manhattan federal court docket that Arslanian “sidelined” her hubby — who prosecutors allege took the gold bars, plus a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} in money and a Mercedes convertible, in trade for wielding his affect to profit three Backyard State businessmen and the governments of Qatar and Egypt.
“The place had been the gold bars discovered? [The] gold bars had been present in a locked closet. It’s Nadine’s closet,” Weitzman stated throughout opening statements, pulling up a photograph of the closet, which he stated was “stuffed with [Nadine’s] garments.”
“The senator didn’t know the gold bars had been there,” he stated.
“[Nadine] saved Bob sidelined. Nadine had these relationships lengthy earlier than she met Bob.”
The feds discovered 13 gold bars price over $150,000 and almost $500,000 in money once they raided the couple’s dwelling in June 2022 — all “fruits” of a corrupt scheme that started in 2018, when Bob and Nadine had been simply beginning to date, prosecutors claimed.
That is the second federal corruption and bribery trial that the Backyard State senior senator is dealing with in lower than a decade, after he dodged a conviction at a previous legal trial that ended with a hung jury in 2017.
Menendez — who has been free on $100,000 bail — is being tried alongside co-defendants and New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, whose pursuits the pol allegedly helped advance for wealth and items.
Menendez has denied all the costs, and his co-defendants have additionally pleaded not responsible.
Uribe, a 3rd businessman concerned within the alleged scheme, pleaded responsible and is cooperating with the feds.
Arslanian can be dealing with bribery fees after pleading not responsible and can stand trial individually.
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