Senator Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) will appear in court on May 6, 2024, for his trial on bribery and corruption charges, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. district judge Sidney Stein scheduled the trial date for May 2024 to give prosecutors ample time to hand over evidence to the Democratic senator’s lawyers, allowing the defense to make its case. Stein decided the prosecution will have to submit its evidence by December 4 and for motions to be filed by January 8, the New Jersey Monitor reported.
“I’m certainly going to try to hold to the dates,” Stein said at the hearing in Manhattan federal court.
Notably, the trial will start less than a month before New Jersey’s Senate primary election, which is set for June 4.
The judge’s ruling comes after Menendez was charged last month for allegedly taking bribes in an influence-peddling scheme that involved Egypt. The criminal indictment accused him of pocketing over $100,000 worth of gold bars and nearly $500,000 in cash, among other luxurious gifts found in his New Jersey home, in exchange for political influence that benefited the Arab Republic of Egypt and enriched three New Jersey businessmen, according to the indictment. Federal investigators also found a new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible at his New Jersey address in June 2022.
Menendez did not appear in court Monday. However, his wife, Nadine Arslanian, who faces the same charges, and three co-defendants — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes — attended the pre-trial hearing with their attorneys. Hana, Uribe, and Daibes were the three businessmen accused of bribing the senator.
On Wednesday, Menendez and the four other defendants pleaded not guilty to the federal corruption charges. Outside of court, the New Jersey politician has also repeatedly asserted his innocence despite Democratic colleagues’ calling for his resignation.
Senate majority whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Senator John Fetterman (D., Pa.), Governor Phil Murphy (D., N.J.), and many other top Democrats have called for Menendez to step down from office. He still retains his Senate seat but has temporarily conceded his chairmanship role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Last week, Menendez told reporters, “I’m innocent. What’s wrong with you guys?” At a press conference, he also insisted that he withdrew the money from his personal savings account in case of emergencies.
“For 30 years I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” Menendez said. “Now this may seem old-fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years.”
After receiving a prior federal indictment in 2015 for similar yet unrelated reasons, Menendez now faces three counts in connection to the alleged bribery scheme. Menendez is the first U.S. senator in history to be the subject of two separate criminal indictments while still in office.