Bob Menendez, the Democratic Senator from New Jersey, is asking a judge to throw out his guilty verdicts and give him a new bribery trial. His legal team says that a mistake made by the prosecution—putting improper evidence on a computer used by jurors—means he deserves a fresh trial.
Menendez, 70, was convicted in July of 16 charges, including bribery. The case focused on accusations that he accepted bribes in exchange for supporting military aid to Egypt. He resigned from the Senate in August and is set to be sentenced in January.
Prosecutors say Menendez took gold and cash from three businessmen in exchange for favors. But earlier this month, they admitted to a mistake. They revealed that some documents, which should have been hidden, were accidentally loaded onto a computer used by jurors to reach their verdict. These documents had redactions (hidden information) that were ordered by the judge to protect Menendez’s rights, but the wrong versions ended up in the hands of the jury.
Prosecutors argued that the error probably didn’t affect the trial because the defense team didn’t raise any objections when they had the chance to check the laptop, and they claimed the evidence wasn’t crucial to the case.
But Menendez’s lawyers are pushing back. They argue that these documents were key to the charge about military aid to Egypt, and without them, the case against him was weaker. They say this mistake is so serious that it requires a new trial.
Menendez’s team also criticized the government for trying to blame them for not catching the mistake. They pointed out that they had very little time to review thousands of documents and that it wasn’t fair for the government to act as if they should have caught the error.
Now, Menendez and his lawyers are hoping the judge will agree and grant him a new trial.