NEW YORK — New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor testified before Sen. Sen. on Wednesday. Bob Menendez In the bribery trial, the Democrat tried to discuss the prosecution of a New Jersey real estate developer with him before recommending him to the post after Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger’s disclosure in testimony set to continue Thursday marked the second time in the five-week trial in federal court in Manhattan that a leading law enforcement figure has said Menendez tried to speak about a criminal case involving a New Jersey businessman was involved. .
Last week, a former New Jersey attorney general testified that Menendez twice confronted him about a pending criminal case involving a New Jersey businessman, and both times the attorney general declined to discuss the subject.
Prosecutors say trying to intervene in criminal cases was one way Menendez, 70, tried to reward businessmen who paid him and his wife bribes in the form of gold bars, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.
When prosecutors charged Menendez, his wife and three businessmen last fall, they said in court filings that Menendez recommended Sellinger as U.S. attorney because he believed he could influence Sellinger to protect Fred Daibes, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer and longtime friend who faced federal problems. prosecution.
Daibes is on trial along with Menendez, along with another businessman, Wael Hana. All three have pleaded not guilty. A third businessman, Jose Uribe, spent four days on the witness stand Wednesday after pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against the others.
A trial for Nadine Menendez was postponed Wednesday until at least August, depending on the pace of her recovery from surgery for breast cancer. She has also pleaded not guilty.
Sellinger, who has held New Jersey’s top federal law enforcement post since December 2021, is not accused of any wrongdoing.
He testified that he had been friends with Menendez since the early 2000s, when he began contributing to his campaigns for Congress and holding political fundraisers for him.
The relationship grew over time as they began dining together and playing golf with their sons, and Sellinger came to believe that Menendez would nominate him as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential race , he said.
When Menendez got married in the fall of 2020, Sellinger attended the wedding, where he also saw Daibes, Sellinger testified.
After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Sellinger said he met with Menendez in his Washington office to talk about the U.S. attorney post. He said he shared his vision for the office.
Menendez then said Daibes had a criminal case and the senator felt he was “being treated unfairly.”
“And he said he hoped that if I became U.S. attorney, I would look at it carefully,” Sellinger recalled.
Sellinger said he told Menendez he knew nothing about it and that he planned to carefully review all cases in his office.
The next day, Sellinger said, he called Menendez after remembering that while in private practice he had handled a lawsuit that went against Daibes and that the Justice Department might decide to fire him from anything related to Daibes .
Sellinger recalled Menendez saying he understood, but days later the senator told him that the White House wanted several potential candidates to be put forward for nomination and that he had decided he would no longer recommend Sellinger for the post.
When Sellinger learned a few months later that the person in line to get the job would no longer get it, he said he contacted Menendez to remind him he was still interested.
He said he then received a call from a political consultant who had previously been director of Menendez’s New Jersey office, and was asked about his plans for the U.S. attorney’s office if he got the job.
Sellinger said he reiterated what he told Menendez, including that he expected to be withdrawn from the Daibes case as a result of his work on the lawsuit involving him.
Still, Sellinger said Menendez told him in the spring that he recommended he be nominated for the position.
After he was sworn in, Sellinger said, on his first day as U.S. attorney he referred his potential conflict of interest regarding Daibes to the Justice Department in Washington and was told the following week that he could have nothing to do with the case.
Three months later, he said, the political adviser asked to meet him for lunch and, after a general conversation about the job, said he wanted to ask him a question.
“I said, ‘Let me stop you there,’” Sellinger testified. “As U.S. Attorney, I am not authorized to engage in discussions about the office’s official business with elected federal officials or their representatives.”
Sellinger said he called Menendez in the spring of 2022 to invite him to speak at a public ceremony honoring Sellinger’s appointment as U.S. attorney.
“He said, ‘I’m going to pass,’” Sellinger recalled.
Sellinger said the senator then said, “The only thing worse than not having a relationship with the U.S. attorney is people thinking you have a relationship with the U.S. attorney and you don’t.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz asked him what he understood Menendez to say.
“We were no longer in a relationship,” Sellinger said.
During cross-examination that will continue Thursday morning, defense attorney Avi Weitzman asked Sellinger if Menendez had ever asked him to do anything inappropriate in the past 20 years.
“I never believed he asked me to do anything inappropriate or unethical,” Sellinger responded.
