Sen. Robert Menendez has raised $188,925 for his legal defense, according to filings posted Monday.
Menendez, a Democrat, has been raising money to try to help him pay for lawyers as he fights corruption-related charges filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
His New Millennium PAC donated $10,000 to the defense fund. So did Howard Jonas, the chairman of security firm IDT, and Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic donor and Chairman of Four M Corporation, according to the filing known as an 8872 form. David Krone, an investment manager in New York, and Felix Roque, a doctor and West New York politician, are listed among those donating $5,000, according to the document.
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The senior senator from New Jersey used $100,000 to pay for lawyers with the Jones Day firm during filing period spanning Jan. 1 through March 31, 2024. The fund also spent over $50,000 on data consulting from firms Haystack and Guidepost, the document shows.
Menendez has pleaded not guilty and his bribery-related trial is set to begin in May. He is accused of taking hundreds of thousands in cash and gold bars from three New Jersey businessmen.
Two of those businessmen — Fred Daibes and Wael Hana — have pleaded not guilty as well. Daibes is accused of bribing the senator to interfere with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey that had charged Daibes in a separate bank fraud matter. Hana is accused of paying bribes to get the senator’s help in securing an overseas business deal with the Egyptian government.
The third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with the FBI. Uribe admitted giving cash to help buy the senator and his wife Nadine a new Mercedes-Benz in exchange for help with a separate criminal matter involving the state attorney general’s office.
Nadine Menendez is also charged, but she recently has fallen ill. The judge agreed to separate her case from her husband’s, so a second trial involving her alleged efforts to secure bribe money is scheduled to be held later in the summer.
