Judge OKs warrants FBI used to uncover gold bar trove at Bob Menendez’s home
FBI agents did not breach Sen. Bob Menendez’s constitutional rights when they searched his New Jersey home in June 2022 and found a trove of gold bars and cash, a federal judge found Monday.
Judge Sidney Stein swatted away the embattled New Jersey Democrat’s claim that the feds “deceived” a magistrate judge by “omitting” key facts before asking for warrants to search the senator’s Englewood home — and his email accounts — as they probed him for an alleged bribery scheme.
Stein blasted an argument from Menendez’s lawyers that Manhattan prosecutors should have disclosed before getting the warrants that several people accused of benefiting from the bribes had claimed not to know anything about the senator’s alleged crimes.
“The fact that beneficiaries of an alleged scheme denied their involvement or knowledge after the fact
when questioned by a government agent is not sufficient to overcome the significant contemporaneous evidence supporting probable cause that is otherwise present,” the jurist wrote.
FBI agents discovered more than $150,000 worth of gold bars and nearly $500,000 in hidden cash — including stuffed inside envelopes inside Menendez’s government jackets — after searching the New Jersey home, court papers say.
Investigators also found a trove of key evidence of the senator’s online activities, including that he Googled “kilo of gold price” shortly after allegedly receiving a gold bar bribe.
FBI agents also uncovered the fingerprints of a driver for a businessman who allegedly bribed Menendez on some of the envelopes, court papers say.
Menendez, 70, and his wife Nadine, 56, have each pleaded not guilty to sprawling bribery charges claiming they accepted cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and even exercise machines and an air purifier from 2018 through 2022 – while the senator helmed the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The pair are accused of doing favors for businessmen and acting as agents of Egypt and Qatar. A trial is slated for May.
Monday’s ruling is just the latest legal blow suffered by the veteran pol.
On Friday, one of the businessmen accused of making the bribes — former insurance agent Jose Uribe — agreed to flip and testify against the Menendezes after admitting in court to helping the couple purchase a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for help protecting one of Uribe’s colleagues from a state investigation over insurance fraud.
Menendez’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
