Washington — Jurors in New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial failed to reach a verdict in their first full day of deliberations on Monday.
The jury of six women and six men began deliberations Friday afternoon and sent several notes to the judge since then, including asking whether a not guilty verdict on a single count requires unanimity.
"It is obvious the government's case is not as simple as they made it [out] to be," Menendez said Monday evening while leaving court.
The trial, initially expected to last six weeks, is now in its tenth week. Menendez pleaded not guilty to 16 felony counts, including obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud. He's accused of using his political influence to benefit two foreign governments, while helping three New Jersey businessmen in return for bribes that included stacks of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Prosecutors argued that Menendez used his influence as the then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to secretly benefit Egypt and pressure an Agriculture Department official to protect a halal certification monopoly Egypt granted to businessman Wael Hana, who was paying the senator's wife, Nadine Menendez.
They also accused Menendez of trying to quash state and federal criminal cases related to former insurance broker Jose Uribe and real estate developer Fred Daibes. Menendez was helping Daibes land a lucrative investment deal with Qatar at the same time, according to prosecutors. Hana and Daibes, who have also pleaded not guilty, are on trial with the senator.
The jurors sent another note later Monday asking, "Does intervening in the federal prosecution of Daibes in New Jersey fall under counts 11 and 12 in the indictment?"
These counts charge Menendez and Daibes with bribery. They allege Daibes gave Menendez and his wife gold bars and thousands in cash. In return, Menendez allegedly tried to use his influence to nominate a federal prosecutor who he thought could make a bank fraud case against Daibes go away.
The other two notes from jurors asked for a power cord and whether they could step outside for a break.
Prosecutors said Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, also tried to obstruct the investigation after they were initially charged by characterizing some of the alleged bribe payments as loans, leading their former lawyers to make false statements to prosecutors.
Nadine Menendez's trial had been postponed until August because she's recovering from breast cancer surgery. On Monday, a judge put her trial on hold indefinitely. She also pleaded not guilty.
Uribe pleaded guilty earlier this year and testified in this trial that he asked Menendez directly for his help, months after he said he handed Nadine Menendez $15,000 in cash in a restaurant parking lot for a downpayment on a $60,000 Mercedes. Uribe made her car payments until June 2022 —the same month the FBI searched the Menendezes' home and found over $480,000 in cash and gold bars worth more than $100,000.
Envelopes containing Daibes' fingerprints or DNA that were seized from Menendez's home had $82,500, Megan Rafferty, a forensic accountant at the FBI, testified earlier this month. Nearly the same amount of cash that was put into circulation in February 2018 or later was found in envelopes in Menendez's basement or his home office, she said.
From 2018 to mid-2022 —the timeframe of the alleged scheme— Menendez withdrew about $55,000 in cash from his account at the Senate Federal Credit Union, according to Rafferty, who said the average withdrawal was about $400. There were no bank or credit card records showing withdrawals of $10,000 — the amount of cash found in a number of envelopes in the home.
Russell Richardson, a forensic accountant who analyzed Menendez's cash withdrawals on behalf of the defense, testified that the senator took out about $400 twice a month between 2008 and 2022. Those withdrawals totaled more than $150,000, he said.
After he was indicted, Menendez explained the cash stockpile as a years-long habit that stemmed from his family's experience in Cuba, before he was born.
The senator didn't testify in his own defense. His lawyers asserted the government is prosecuting routine legislative activity. They've tried to pin the blame on his wife, saying she had financial troubles that she did not disclose to her husband.
This story has been updated to correct the description of the jury's note. Alice Gainer, Christine Sloan and Ash Kalmar contributed reporting.
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
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