FBI agents testify about surveilling Sen. Menendez’s dinner at Washington steakhouse he frequented

Two FBI investigators testified at Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial about surveilling a May 2019 dinner at Morton’s The Steakhouse in Washington, DC.

Steaks, cigars, booze, diplomats and pals – they were all on the menu at Sen. Bob Menendez’s frequent dinners at Morton’s The Steakhouse in Washington DC, according to two FBI investigators who testified Tuesday in the New Jersey Democrat’s federal corruption trial. FBI investigative specialist Terry Williams Thompson, who eavesdropped on one of the meals on May 21, 2019, told the court she heard a woman ask another unidentified diner, “What else can the love of my life do for you?” While it wasn’t immediately clear to whom the question was directed, the implication was clear: Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife, was the person asking. Throughout the trial, she has been heard over voicemail and seen in text messages addressing her husband with similar language. 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. The trial in New York federal court is in its fourth week, and prosecutors have started to piece together different threads of the complex bribery scheme they’ve alleged. The testimony about FBI surveillance adds another dimension to the prosecution’s case, which also includes gold bars seized from the Menendez home, Nadine Menendez’s text messages and other testimony. As he left court Tuesday, Bob Menendez told CNN in an interview that he feels confident his defense attorneys are “showing the truth” by discrediting prosecution witnesses through cross-examination.