FBI agent testifies at Menendez trial about texts that allegedly show how senator’s wife got a Mercedes
CNN
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s federal corruption trial continued Wednesday with an FBI special agent reading text messages from a New Jersey businessman who is alleged to have made payments on a Mercedes-Benz convertible for the senator’s wife.
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s federal corruption trial continued Wednesday with an FBI special agent reading text messages from a New Jersey businessman who is alleged to have made payments on a Mercedes-Benz convertible for the senator’s wife. FBI special agent Rachel Graves combed through countless text messages and documents from 2018 and 2019 detailing Jose Uribe’s involvement in the bribery scheme. Uribe was indicted alongside Menendez but struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors earlier this year. Under the terms of the deal, he pleaded guilty to seven counts and agreed to testify in the government’s case. Bob and Nadine Menendez, along with New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are accused of engaging in a bribery scheme and acting as foreign agents for the Egyptian government. All four have pleaded not guilty. Nadine Menendez will be tried separately this summer. Prosecutor Paul Michael Monteleoni spent Wednesday morning in federal court in New York unraveling the complex web of communication that allegedly led to Nadine Menendez’s ownership of a Mercedes-Benz C300 convertible car. Prosecutors allege that Uribe made payments for the car in exchange for the senator’s help in influencing New Jersey state criminal prosecutions of two Uribe associates. One of them, Elvis Parra, was charged with insurance fraud in New Jersey. Evidence showed Uribe frequently texted and called Hana and Nadine Menendez, who prosecutors say was the intermediary for communications to the senator.
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