Following his conviction for bribery, former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has filed a move in Manhattan federal court seeking a new trial. His defense contends that the trial’s fairness was jeopardized because jurors improperly accessed evidence during deliberations.
Important Points:
- Menendez s legal team claims jurors reviewed inadmissible evidence due to prosecution mislabeling.
- The defense argues the mislabeled evidence was critical to the bribery case involving military aid to Egypt.
- Menendez, convicted on 16 counts in July, is scheduled for sentencing on January 29.
- Prosecutors contend the error did not affect the trial s outcome and that jurors likely did not review the material.
- Menendez s attorneys warn that dismissing the error could incentivize future prosecutorial misconduct.
Bob Menendez Appeals For New Trial Citing Prosecution Error
Bob Menendez, a former Democratic senator from New Jersey, filed a plea on Wednesday asking the Manhattan federal court to reverse his bribery convictions and allow for a new trial.
According to the defense’s filed filings, the request comes after the prosecution acknowledged that jurors had accessed contaminated evidence on a computer during deliberations, necessitating a fresh trial. Adam Fee, Menendez’s lawyer, asserted that a new trial is necessary due to the grave violation.
In their lawsuit, Fee argued that the faulty exhibits were important since they were the only proof connecting Menendez to the military assistance for Egypt. Citing the impracticality of analyzing nearly 3,000 exhibits in a few hours and the reasonable anticipation that the government would appropriately label the exhibits, they declared the government’s shift of guilt onto the defense to be both legally and factually unjustified.
The defense contended that interpreting this error as a waiver may incite wrongdoing by the prosecution.
It was entitled to assume that the government would not mistakenly designate exhibits that were not brought and that were prohibited by the constitution as allowed. According to the brief, parties would be encouraged to purposefully attempt to pull a fast one if this were interpreted as a waiver.
In July, Menendez was found guilty on 16 counts, including bribery, for allegedly taking payments to help the United States provide Egypt with military assistance. Sentence is set for January 29 after being heresigned by the Senate in August.
The prosecution said during the trial that Menendez accepted $480,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars from three New Jersey businessmen in return for political favors. Prosecutors revealed earlier this month that a number of trial exhibits included unredacted material that U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein had previously omitted in order to preserve legislative speech under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution.
Since defense lawyers had seen and approved the laptop’s contents prior to the jury using it, the prosecutors contended that no more action was necessary despite the error. In light of the other evidence that was offered, they said it was improbable that jurors looked at the defective exhibits, which they considered to be redundant and of little significance.
(Featured Image Media Credit: YouTube/Bob Menendez/Screenshot)
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