New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez seeks acquittal in bribery case

Attorneys for New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez filed a motion Monday seeking their client's acquittal in connection to the bribery case Menendez was found guilty in last month.

"Senator Robert Menendez respectfully renews his motion for judgment of acquittal on all counts for failure to introduce sufficient evidence to satisfy each of the elements of each offense, or, in the alternative, for a new trial," the motion reads.

Among the arguments cited by Menendez's attorney's are that the court should vacate the bribery convictions because prosecutors failed to prove any of the elements of the alleged quid pro quo; the government failed to prove venue as to 16 counts of conviction; evidence was insufficient to convict on the foreign agent counts; and the evidence was insufficient to convict Menendez on the obstruction of justice counts.

Menendez's co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes filed similar motions. 

"This prosecution of Senator Menendez was nothing if not unprecedented and high profile. If sustained on such a surprisingly thin reed of evidence, these convictions will make terrible, dangerous law. All of Senator Menendez’s convictions must be reversed," the motion reads in part.

The 52-page document continues: "The government said it would prosecute Senator Menendez for his alleged agreements to sell official acts in exchange for bribes. But despite a 10-week trial, the government offered no actual evidence of an agreement, just speculation masked as inference. Worse, the government walked all over the Senator’s constitutionally protected Speech or Debate privilege in an effort to show that he took some official action, when in reality, the evidence showed that he never used the authority of his office to do anything in exchange for a bribe.

Menendez is expected to resign by the end of the day Tuesday, about a month after a jury convicted him on federal bribery charges.

Menendez signaled his resignation last month in a letter to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who said Friday he's tapping a former top aide to succeed the three-term incumbent.

George Helmy will succeed Menendez until the November election results for the Senate seat are certified late in the month, the governor said. At that point, Murphy said Helmy will resign and he'll name the winner of the election to the seat.

The stakes in the Senate election are high, with Democrats holding on to a narrow majority. Republicans have not won a Senate election in Democratic-leaning New Jersey in over five decades.

Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and Republican hotel developer Curtis Bashaw are facing off in the general election.

Helmy, 44, served as Murphy’s chief of staff from 2019 until 2023 and currently serves as an executive at one of the state’s largest health care providers, RWJBarnabas Health. He previously served as Sen. Cory Booker’s state director in the Senate.

Menendez, 70, was convicted on charges that he used his influence to meddle in three different state and federal criminal investigations to protect the businessmen. Prosecutors said he helped one bribe-paying friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another keep a contract to provide religious certification for meat bound for Egypt.

He was also convicted of taking actions that benefited Egypt’s government in exchange for bribes, including providing details on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators regarding lifting a hold on military aid to Egypt. FBI agents also said they found stacks of gold bars and $480,000 hidden in Menendez’s house.

Menendez denied all of the allegations, and in in a letter to Murphy last month, he said he’s planning to appeal the conviction.

The resignation appears to mark the end of a nearly lifelong political career for Menendez, who was first elected to his local school board just a couple of years after his high school graduation. He was also elected to the state Legislature and Congress before heading to the Senate.

Menendez is the only U.S. senator indicted twice.

In 2015, he was charged with letting a wealthy Florida eye doctor buy his influence through luxury vacations and campaign contributions. After a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict in 2017, New Jersey federal prosecutors dropped the case rather than put him on trial again.

He served as a Democrat in Congress but decided not to run in the primary this year as his court case was unfolding. He filed to run as an independent in the fall, though he withdrew his name from the ballot on Friday, according to a letter he sent to state election officials.