US Senator Bob Menendez’s lawyer told jurors that the politician’s wife failed to tell him details of how she got a Mercedes Benz from a convicted felon who testified during the lawmaker’s corruption trial that the car was a bribe.
The defense attorney used his closing argument Wednesday in New York to undermine a sweeping case against Menendez, including a claim that former insurance broker Jose Uribe bribed the senator’s then-girlfriend Nadine Arslanian with the Mercedes to get him to influence two criminal investigations.
Bob Menendez exits federal court in New York on June 10.
Uribe, who pleaded guilty and testified against the New Jersey Democrat, lied to jurors about making a deal with Arslanian to give her $15,000 in cash for a down payment on the car and then make monthly payments f