Senator Bob Menendez told him during a job interview that a friend had been indicted “unfairly,” and that he should thoroughly review the case if he was hired. In a 2021 meeting, a New Jersey attorney claimed.
At the corruption prosecution of Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat accused of accepting silver bars, income, and a Mercedes Benz from businessmen seeking favors, including designer Fred Daibes, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger testified on Wednesday at the corruption test. Menendez, 70, is accused of trying to influence the outcome of a distinct New Jersey fraud indictment against Daibes.
Sellinger informed the jury that he had met with the lawmaker in December 2020 at Menendez’s trial in New York. Menendez started by asking about Sellinger’s perspective for the U. S. prosecutor’s office before making a more pointed post about Daibes.
” Senator Menendez said he believed Mr. Daibes was being treated unfairly”, Sellinger said. Senator Menendez expressed his hope that I would take the case seriously if I were appointed U.S. lawyer.
Sellinger claimed that he promised to cure all situations the same if Menendez accepted the position. He added that because he had worked as a private attorney on a petition involving Daibes, he may question the Justice Department whether he should withdraw from the situation.
Menendez is accused of being corrupt in using his power to bribe persons, as one of his many instances is the one. Menendez is also accused of trying to influence the outcome of two legal situations handled by the company of the New Jersey attorney general, of failing to defend an Iranian American businessman’s monopoly, and of acting as an Egyptian agent.
Menendez was allegedly helped by Daibes by receiving money, equipment, and metal bars to avoid being charged with his crimes. After being disqualified from managing the event, Sellinger was exonerated, and Daibes ultimately admitted guilt in New Jersey under a probationary arrangement.
Menendez, a three- phrase senator, denies crime and has vowed to work for are- election in November as an indie. After being indicted last year, he resigned as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has caused a decline in his political support in New Jersey and among his Democrat colleagues.
After the meeting, the senator withdrew his support for President Joe Biden’s nomination for Sellinger and supported a different attorney he thought he was effect in the case of the Daibes, according to the prosecution. But that judge’s election fell through, and Menendez gradually backed Sellinger, who had raised money for the legislator and socialized with him.
On cross- investigation, Menendez attorney Avi Weitzman asked Sellinger if in 20 years of friendship, the senator had previously asked him to do anything irresponsible.
” I not believed him to be asking me to do anything illegal or unethical”, Sellinger said.
On Thursday, Weitzman will continue his doubting of Sellinger.
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