Top federal prosecutor in New Jersey tells jury Sen. Menendez never pressured him
CNN
A top federal prosecutor handed Sen. Bob Menendez a lifeline at the New Jersey Democrat’s corruption trial Tuesday.
A top federal prosecutor handed Sen. Bob Menendez a lifeline at the New Jersey Democrat’s corruption trial Tuesday, telling the court during cross examination that Menendez never asked or pressured him to act improperly on behalf of a political ally. Philip Sellinger, now the US attorney for the District of New Jersey, said that in late 2020, he went to Menendez hoping for the senator’s support in his bid to be nominated to the post. During the conversation, Sellinger testified, Menendez mentioned that Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and co-defendant in the case, “was being treated unfairly” by prosecutors who had indicted him on bank fraud charges. “Sen. Menendez hoped that if I became US attorney, that I would look at (the Daibes case) carefully,” Sellinger said. That testimony came up again Tuesday when Menendez attorney Avi Weitzman pressed Sellinger on the nature of that interaction. “I did not believe that (Menendez) was asking me to do anything other than my official duty,” Sellinger, a longtime friend and political supporter of Menendez, told the court. “I didn’t believe he was asking me to do anything.” At that, Weitzman asked Sellinger if it was “fair to say that he didn’t ask you to put your thumb on the scales of justice?”
Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he’s been diagnosed with “metastasized, stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning.
Political opposites are closing 2025 as they did 2024: on each side of America’s Donald Trump divide. But CNN’s “All Over the Map” survey did provide several interesting takeaways. Some may be instructive about the midterm election climate, at least at this beginning stage.
A 2-year-old child is among at least five people who were killed when a Mexican Navy plane carrying medical patients crashed into the waters of Galveston Bay in Texas on Monday afternoon, US Coast Guard officials say.
The Trump administration is suing the local government of Washington, DC, over its gun laws, alleging that restrictions on certain semiautomatic weapons run afoul of Second Amendment rights.
Vince Zampella, one of the creators behind best-selling video games such as “Call of Duty,” has died. He was 55.
President Donald Trump said Monday the US remains in active pursuit of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, more than 24 hours after the chase began, while repeating his threats against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Vice President JD Vance has never looked more like the presumptive 2028 Republican presidential nominee.
A man is facing murder, weapons, and arson charges after authorities say he killed another man with an arrow, then barricaded himself in his home, where several fires were set.
An apparently frustrated federal judge pressed the Trump administration Monday to share what it was going to do next in the fast-moving saga over Kilmar Abrego Garcia days after she found he was being unlawfully held in immigration custody.
The Justice Department’s release of thousands of documents and pictures related to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein on Friday was highly anticipated and provided a glimpse into the life of the late sex offender and his associations with some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.
Jeffrey Epstein survivors are slamming the Justice Department’s partial release of the Epstein files that began last Friday, contending that contrary to what is mandated by law, the department’s disclosures so far have been incomplete and improperly redacted — and challenging for the survivors to navigate as they search for information about their own cases.
President Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement about shipbuilding alongside his Pentagon chief and Navy secretary on Monday, according to a person familiar with the plans.