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The federal corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez could drag out even longer if the judge hearing the case has to dismiss a juror who's nearing her vacation. U.S. District Judge William Walls on Wednesday warned attorneys on both sides in the bribery trial of the Democratic senator from New Jersey and Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen that he would have to replace a juror if the deliberating panel doesn't reach a verdict by Nov. 10, the start of the female juror's vacation. In scheduling the final stages of the trial, which has stretched into his ninth week, Walls said...

An overwhelming majority of Sen. Bob MenendezÂ’s constituents (84 percent) want the Democratic senator to resign from office if heÂ’s convicted of the federal bribery and corruption charges heÂ’s currently facing in court alongside his deep-pocketed benefactor. Democratic senators, however, arenÂ’t willing to say whether their colleague should go if convicted.Menendez faces a whopping 14 counts of corruption charges. He allegedly traded luxury vacations, campaign donations, and trips on a cushy private jet from co-defendent Dr. Salomon Melgen for personal favors like securing visas for MelgenÂ’s foreign girlfriends.Menendez claims he is innocent, and apparently has no plans to resign. He...

The judge at Sen. Bob Menendez's corruption trial refused to throw out any of the charges against the New Jersey Democrat on Monday in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling narrowing the definition of bribery. The decision by U.S. District Judge Williams Walls was a major defeat for Menendez and a huge victory for prosecutors, who warned that dismissing the charges would torpedo nearly all other bribery cases and open the door wide to graft. Walls rejected defense lawyers' arguments that the allegations against Menendez didn't meet the new, narrower definition of bribery under a 2016 Supreme Court ruling...

As of Midnight here in the Socialist, filthy state of N.J., just look through the headlines and nothing Menendez. Yankees and everything that is not Liberal Democrat Corruption on a Violent scale is there, yet no Menendez.

**full title**‘Where is the crime exactly?’ An update on Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial, a month in Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has spent the past month on trial in New Jersey for allegations that he was bribed with villa stays, private plane flights and campaign donations to help a wealthy donor resolve several disputes with the government. It’s the first federal bribery trial of a sitting U.S. senator in more than three decades, and if he’s found guilty over the next few weeks, it could have political implications for President Trump’s agenda.Where is the crime exactly? If there is a...

Former Health and Human Services Administrator Kathleen Sebelius testified Tuesday in Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez’s federal corruption trial, saying she felt at one point he wanted her to “take some action.” Prosecutors allege Menendez used his political power to lobby Sebelius and others on behalf of a Florida eye doctor who overcharged Medicaid by nearly $9 million, reports Politico. In exchange for Menendez’s efforts to save the doctor from “punishment,” prosecutors charge the doctor lavished him with massive political donations and extravagant trips. The trial focused Tuesday on whether Menendez did take a bribe from the doctor, Solomon Melgen, who...

***snip***So [Kathleen] Sebelius thought it was strange when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid summoned her to his Capitol Hill office in August 2012 to meet with Sen. Robert Menendez over what she understood to be a Medicare billing dispute involving a Florida doctor. “I think it’s the only time I was asked to discuss a practice involving a billing issue” involving the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Sebelius testified in federal court here Tuesday. It was also unusual, she said, for Reid, “to ask me to come to a meeting involving another member of Congress.”

The bribery trial of senior New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez has it all. Menendez is facing charges that he sold his US Senate office to a Palm Beach, Fla., eye doctor, his co-defendant Salomon Melgen, for bribes in the form of private jets stocked with Menendez’s favorite beverages, a private villa at one of the lushest resorts in the Caribbean, and a Paris hotel suite for which Melgen spent 650,000 American Express points. The two men met in 1993 when Melgen contributed $500 to Menendez’s first House re-election campaign at a South Florida fundraiser — his first political contribution....

Former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is expected to be called to testify in the corruption trial of Sen. Robert Menendez, a source with knowledge of the situation told Fox News on Friday. Menendez is accused of accepting campaign donations, gifts and vacations from Florida ophthalmologist Dr. Salomon Melgen. In return, Menendez, D-N.J., allegedly used his Senate powers to lobby on behalf of Melgen’s business interests. Reid's name re-emerged weeks ago in the case, when prosecutors said the former congressional leader was “first enlisted” by Menendez in November 2011 to advocate for Melgen in the ongoing dispute the doctor had...

Following a GotNews report that New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker received donations from fellow Democrat Bob Menendez, records suggest the two may have traded some PAC cash. FEC donation records accessed from OpenSecrets.org show in 2012, Cory Booker’s PAC gave $5,000 to the re-election effort for Menendez. Booker’s PAC gave $8,500 dollars to different Democratic Senate candidates, but Menendez received over half of it. In 2014, when Booker was up for re-election, the Menendez-affiliated PAC New Millennium gave $10,000 to Booker’s re-election bid.

The vast majority of people polled in New Jersey want Sen. Robert Menendez (D) to step down if he's found guilty on charges of bribery, according to a new poll that shows the embattled senator's favorability rating plummeting. Eighty-four percent of likely voters call for him to resign in a new Suffolk University poll commissioned by USA Today , while just 10 percent believe he should stay in office if convicted. Those high marks are even reflected among Democrats, as more than three quarters agree he should not remain in office if convicted. His favorable rating is upside down in...

Jurors at U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial heard Wednesday how the senator failed to list a series of gifts he received from his co-defendant between 2006 and 2010, including six round-trip flights, a $875 livery service and a $4,934 stay at a Paris hotel, on his annual financial disclosure forms. In painstaking detail, prosecutors pointed out that the gifts from Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist and longtime friend, did not qualify for reporting exemptions and that Menendez had acknowledged with his signature that the reports were “true, complete and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.”

**SNIP** More broadly, it has inserted a level of rhetorical uncertainty into one of the core principles defining the responsibilities of members of Congress: whether they serve on behalf of the people from their home state, or whether, once elected, they represent much broader interests. The prosecution, citing Black’s Law Dictionary, argued in a brief filed on Tuesday that “the straightforward answer is that Senator Menendez’s constituents are the New Jerseyans that he was elected to represent in the United States Senate.” But the defense, in a brief that was also filed Tuesday, claimed that the term was significantly amorphous...

A former staffer for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez testified Monday that the Democrat helped with the visa applications of friends of a wealthy doctor who faces bribery charges with him, while defense attorneys sought to show Menendez's actions were unremarkable and part of the duties of his office. Under direct questioning from the government, former senior policy adviser Mark Lopes testified Menendez emailed him in 2008 authorizing a letter of support from Menendez to be sent to consular officials regarding the visa applications of two sisters from the Dominican Republic.*snip*Earlier Monday, a vice president for American Express testified Melgen used...

Senate Democrats are steering clear of Sen. Robert Menendez's federal corruption trial, not answering questions on whether the New Jersey Democrat should resign if convicted.**snip**Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), and Ben Cardin (Md.) have all demurred when asked about the possibility of a Menendez conviction. "Senator Menendez is issuing a spirited defense," Schumer said when asked if he would stand by him during the trial. "We all believe in the presumption of innocence in this country, and Senator Menendez is fighting very hard and we respect...

The judge overseeing the bribery trial of Sen. Robert Menendez ripped into prosecutors Thursday for trying to focus on what he called “tabloid’’ details — an unusual description for dry testimony about a series of emails about a hotel reservation. U.S. District Judge William Walls stopped testimony for 20 minutes in which he tongue-lashed prosecutors for their painstaking recounting of emails used to book a luxury hotel in Paris for the New Jersey Democrat in 2010. The three-day hotel stay is a central part of the Justice Department’s case.

In his opening statement, Kirk Ogrosky, the defense attorney for Sen. Menendez’ co-defendant Salomon Melgen, claimed that the government’s case is really an attack on Hispanic-Americans. From Politico: “Sal and Bob were part of a fellowship of Hispanic Americans. Entrepreneurs, businessmen, doctors, politicians. You’ll hear this at trial: their idea was to pay it forward, help young Hispanic Americans improve their lives, lift up their community, play a larger role in their community,” Ogrosky said at the second day of the trial, which began Wednesday. “This case isn’t only an attack on those two men. It’s an attack on that...

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wealthy donor Salomon Melgen engaged in "a corrupt pact spanning seven years," federal prosecutors allege. It was a "bribery scheme," in which Menendez got campaign contributions, chartered flights, luxury accommodations, and more. In return, the senator allegedly took "official action advancing the South Florida eye doctor's personal whims and business interests." Menendez denies all these accusations, and in his defense he will argue that the hundreds of thousands in contributions and the millions worth of gifts he received, combined with the millions in taxpayer cash he tried to get for Melgen,...

For the first time in nearly four decades, a sitting US senator goes on trial Wednesday on federal bribery charges in a case that could have profound political impact. Prosecutors have laid out a strong case against New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez in their indictment. But in the two years since it was unveiled, the Supreme Court has made it much harder to win a conviction. The senator is charged with taking nearly $1 million in personal gifts and campaign cash from a longtime friend, allegedly in return for political favors.

Where’s the wall-to-wall coverage … Something hidden in the New York Times … An initial version of a story about the corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez in the New York Times didn’t mention that he is a Democrat. According to Josh Jordan on Twitter, the information was “quietly added” to the story. If this was a Republican, the headline would have screamed “GOP Senator faces corruption trial tomorrow.” This is the Times’ subtle bias at work. Unfair to Democrats … The Hill published a laughable op-ed by defense lawyer Joel Cohen that said prosecuting Menendez for corruption “unfairly punishes...