Key witness in Bob Menendez bribery case claims he proposed a car for senator’s wife

A New Jersey businessman testified Friday that he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) by giving his wife a Mercedes-Benz convertible on the condition the sitting senator would “stop and kill” any criminal investigation looking into his company.

Jose Uribe, the prosecution’s star witness in Menendez’s federal corruption trial in Manhattan, told jurors he made the deal with Nadine Menendez, who went by Nadine Arslanian at the time, during a March 2019 telephone call.

“Nadine will contact Sen. Menendez, use his influence and power to do anything possible to stop and kill investigations, so my family … so it doesn’t get to my family, and my family doesn’t get hurt,” Uribe testified. “She agreed to the terms.”

Prosecutors have spent the past four weeks trying to piece together what they claim is a sprawling, yearslong bribery scheme by the Menendezs.

Uribe, the prosecution’s lone cooperating witness, has pleaded guilty to multiple state and federal crimes linked to his businesses.

Uribe testified his friend Wael Hana, a co-defendant in the trial, told him in early 2018 there were multiple state criminal investigations swirling around the trucking company of a friend of his as well as his own insurance business. Hana allegedly said he could make those investigations disappear if Uribe was willing to spend $200,000 to $250,000. Uribe agreed. Hana told Uribe he would go to Arslanian, who had started dating the senator that year, and make the deal.

Uribe held a July 13, 2018, political fundraiser for Menendez that raised $50,000. There was no mention of the backroom deal at the party or afterparty, both of which the senator attended. Later that year, an investigator from the attorney general’s office asked to interview one of Uribe’s employees. Uribe testified he was “not happy” and texted Hana to get the senator to intervene in the probes. Hana set up an October 2018 dinner meeting but there was no mention of the deal.

“Nothing was discussed there of value, I will say,” Uribe testified. “It was a pointless, a pointless meeting.”

Uribe said he began communicating directly with Nadine Arslanian in March 2019 and promised that he would buy her a car if she delivered on the deal. Uribe’s testimony will continue Monday with cross examination.

“Next week, we get the truth,” Menendez said just before stepping into a car Friday afternoon at the federal courthouse.

Menendez has been charged with bribery, fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. He has pleaded not guilty.

Nadine Menendez has also been charged, but her trial has been delayed for health reasons.

New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes and Hana are on trial alongside Menendez.

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Prosecutors claim they also showered Menendez with expensive gifts, including cash and gold bars, and are accused of being players in an international bribery scheme that includes a halal meat monopoly, a sheikh, and a Qatari investment. They have pleaded not guilty and claim the gifts were given out of generosity.

Prosecutor Laura Pomerantz has accused Menendez of putting “greed first” and told jurors he sold out his constituents, during opening arguments.