THE MENENDEZ TRIAL: Six Jet Flights and One Luxury Hotel
NEWARK – Jurors in Sen. Robert Menendez’s corruption trial this morning heard testimony about six jet flights and one luxury hotel stay the senator did not include on his 2010 Senate disclosure report, getting to the heart of the false reporting charge that could be the Achilles Heel of Menendez’s defense.
While the bribery and conspiracy charges included in the 12-count indictment against the Democratic senator have dominated the headlines, the one count of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms is still a felony. If convicted, Menendez could face up to five years in jail, and intense pressure to resign or not seek re-election in 2018 even if he is acquitted on the more serious charges.
Prosecutors allege the flights and hotel stay, paid for by Menendez’s co-defendant Dr. Salomon Melgen, were bribes and argue the incomplete disclosure form is evidence of “concealment.”
On the witness stand, FBI Agent Alan Mohl read out the boilerplate of the Senate form, which says the declarations on it are “true and complete based on my knowledge and belief.” Menendez signed the form on May 16, 2011, when the senator’s subpoenaed schedule indicates he was in his New Jersey office, Mohl said.
According to Mohl, on that form Menendez failed to disclose:
• His April 2010 stay at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Paris, France, paid for by Melgen with nearly $5,000 worth of American Express points.
• A flight on Melgen’s private jet from Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC to the Dominican Republic on August 6, 2010
• The return flight on Melgen’s jet from the Dominican Republic to Teterboro Airport, with a stop in West Palm Beach, starting August 9, 2010 and ending in the early morning hours of August 10.
• A September 3, 2010 flight on Melgen’s jet from Teterboro to the Dominican Republic, by way of West Palm Beach.
• The September 6, 2010 return trip on the private jet, which started in the Dominican Republic and landed in West Palm Beach to clear customs before taking the senator to Teterboro.
• A first-class commercial airline ticket from Newark Airport to West Palm Beach on October 9, 2010, paid for by Melgen.
• A charter flight from West Palm Beach to Washington, DC on October 11, 2010, which prosecutors say Melgen paid around $8,000 for Menendez to take.
Mohl had began to go through gifts Menendez allegedly failed to disclose on his 2008 form when Judge William Walls sent the jury on its morning break.
Menendez’s attorney Abbe Lowell told jurors in his opening argument that if they find the gifts Menendez received were not bribes, there was no crime committed in failing to disclose them. Menendez did disclose three of the flights and paid Melgen back $58,000 in January 2013, just after his successful re-election to the Senate.
Prosecutors this morning played for the jury a Feb. 4, 2013 CNN interview where Menendez chalked up his failure to disclose the flights to a busy travel schedule. The prosecution wants jurors to see the interview as evidence of Menendez’s attempt to cover his tracks, but Walls put a stop to follow-up questions that could have highlighted that argument.
“The tape speaks for itself,” Walls told jurors. “What you see here is what you are to consider regarding the tape and its position in this trial.”
Following in the footsteps of US Sen. Cory Booker, who attended the trial opening arguments, and West New York Mayor Felix Roque, who has spent several days at trial to support Menendez, state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D -Newark) spent the morning in the front row of the gallery. She was seated alongside Menendez’s family.
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