Gold Bar’ Bob Menendez stuffed piles of cash in shoes and bed

Senator Bob Menendez’s (pictured) messy home was littered with gold bars and wads of cash stuffed in Timberland boots and in his bed, new pictures reveal. The images of $100, $50 and $20 dollar bills spewed all over the New Jersey Democrat’s unkempt house were shown to the jury during his ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan. The photographs were taken during the FBI ‘s raid of the Menendez residence in June 2022.

He and his wife Nadine are both charged in a bribery scheme featuring gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash payments and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible. He is accused of using his influence as the powerful then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to benefit a handful of businessmen and the government of Egypt.

Menendez, Nadine and two New Jersey businessmen – Wael Hana and Fred Daibes – have pleaded not guilty. Last week, Menendez’s legal team threw Nadine under the bus, saying she was storing gold bars in the couple’s home without the lawmaker’s knowledge . His defense strategy was revealed despite Nadine announcing that she has breast cancer.

The Democrat’s attorney Avi Weitzman claimed during opening statements that the ‘gold bars were found in a locked closet’ and that it wasn’t the lawmaker’s but ‘it is Nadine’s closet.’ He then pulled out a photo of the closet and highlighted how it was filled with Nadine’s clothes. ‘The senator did not know the gold bars were there,’ Weitzman told the jury.

Federal prosecutors, however, claim Menendez was directly involved in the bribery scheme. ‘This case is about a public official who put greed first. Who put his power up for sale,’ US Attorney Lara Pomerantz said Wednesday. ‘This was not politics as usual. This was politics for profit. He was powerful. He was also corrupt. And what was his price? Gold bars,’ Pomerantz said. ‘The scheme filled his pockets, it filled his wife’s pockets, and it fed their greed. Menendez abused his positions to feed his own greed and to keep his wife happy,’ the federal prosecutor stated.

Pomerantz even claimed that Menendez deployed his wife to handle communications in the bribery scheme. ‘He used Nadine as his go-between to deliver messages to and from the people paying bribes.’

Judge Sidney H. Stein, who is presiding over the case, told potential jurors that renowned lawmakers, former white house officials and even one man considered to be in the running for a Trump vice presidential slot could all be called in to testify in the high-profile corruption case.

The list of potential witnesses given out by Stein included: Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Tim Scott, R-S.C., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Chris Coons, D-Del., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Kristen Sinema, I-Ariz., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

It also includes former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin, former senior advisor to President Obama David Axelrod and Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.

The list of potential witnesses notably mentions Scott, who has been rumored to be a top pick for Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate. It also lists two of the former president’s closest advisors: Mnuchin and Pompeo.

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