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Senator Menendez Guilty Of Federal Corruption Charges. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired July 16, 2024 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:01:29]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: We are following this breaking news in the federal corruption trial involving Senator Bob Menendez, the verdict coming in. Right now we now understand he has been found guilty on all 16 federal charges. He has -- he'd been facing charges of bribery fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction. So that is something I just want to let my team know I'm not getting mixed minus. So if we can fix that. Otherwise, I'm just going to hear myself as I report out this news.

But this is a trial that has been going on for weeks. And the jury now after deliberating for a couple of days coming to this conclusion, which is really a bombshell. He had been facing 16 federal charges, and he has been found guilty on all of them. With us now, we have former US Attorney Harry Litman. Harry, what's your reaction to this?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER US ATTORNEY: You know, it is a bombshell but you could see the bomb falling from the sky for the several weeks after so long at trial. This is a very short deliberation, they were obviously completely persuaded. This is going to go down as the trial involving the gold bars. They found nearly half a million dollars in cash stuffed in the senator's closet and big gold bars.

They had -- one of the people who actually bribed him testify. The evidence was really overwhelming. And then we added to it the obstruction counts, he's been found guilty of everything. It's as sort of severe a judgment and a kind of you have to think to a long career in public service as one can imagine.

But it was really seen very, very strong as the evidence was coming in. And in that sense, it's not a surprise.

KEILAR: All right. So, Harry, as you mentioned, obviously, this is something that he gained a lot of notoriety for, because as you had official searching his home, they were finding hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash stuffed in closets, stuffed in jackets. There were gold bars.

But let's just talk about what he is now standing convicted of, using his influence in many different considerable ways to the benefit of the government of Qatar, of Egypt, trying to influence, you know, criminal prosecutions, for instance. These are serious charges for someone who was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It's really stunning.

LITMAN: That's right. And that really is the distinctive feature of this case. In many ways, it's a crass bribery case, give me a Mercedes Benz, you know, cash stuffed in pockets. But as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations that he has basically doubled dealing, which is to say compromising the national interests of the United States for his own personal interests. There's no other way really to look at it.

And what it means is, he intervenes for people including to try to quash criminal prosecutions in a way that is not simply sort of privately venal, but publicly compromising of really grave and, in his case sort of signature duties that he's worked his way up to. That's what's really going to sort of go down here in the sort of, you know, second sentence of it all.

[13:05:10]

This feature of really -- it's almost a soft version of giving away secrets, right? He's actually serving other countries interest rather from his very, very high perch. That's a damning fact, in addition, of course, to the lurid evidence that, as you say, you know, the big gold bars, what are you going to do?

KEILAR: Yes. Look, in the question -- in the case of Egypt, I should say, there were allegations that he had used his influence to give them information about US interest in the country, so very much working against US national security, Harry, which has been -- and has continue to raise questions as he stepped aside, obviously, from that position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but as he continued to be a senator.

This -- now he's convicted of doing, putting US national security interests at risk.

LITMAN: You know, that's right, and it will occasion a sort of broader inquiry. Right now they focused on proving the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. But, you know, Senator Menendez has been -- not the first time he's been in the crosshairs of the federal government. And in fact, are there any other ways where potentially the US interests were compromised.

Now, look, this is -- this wasn't about selling nuclear secrets, it was about favoring commercial interests. Nevertheless, it's such a rank and down the middle betrayal of what he's supposed to be. And we have had, well, this case is very interesting, because it can joins the sort of down and -- most down and dirty sort of New Jersey bribery with also theft of honest services.

That's a highfalutin way of saying he cheated the people -- the have the right to the honest government. They were able to expect and should have expected. Also obstruction, it's, as you say, 16 different counts. It's a really long and damning sheet. But this particular international feature is really a kind of a cutting edge feature. And that's what will, I think, really kind of the Department of Justice, really -- it really made me motivated to go pedal to the metal. Now, as you I think know, his wife was a co- defendant here and he tried to win few ways to sort of say it was all her doing the gold bars, et cetera.

She now because it appears personal illness, her trial has been indefinitely postponed. So this really is the sort of culmination of this very long, serious investigation.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly is with huge waves reaching all the way up to Capitol Hill. Harry, if you could stand by for me. I want to bring in Kara Scannell, our CNN correspondent who is outside of court and has been following this trial. She's joining us now.

Kara, tell us about this moment that we're at and also about some of the most surprising things perhaps that came out during this trial.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Brianna, this is in the 10th week of this trial. This jury has been here for most of the early part of the summer. They took about 13 hours to deliberate, not asking very many questions as they were working through the total 18 counts, 16 of which related to Senator Menendez.

And when they came into the courtroom, my colleague inside said that when they first went through the first count that was found guilty, the senator had his -- had shaking his head side to side as if to say no. And then, he has been sitting with his hands clasped in front of him with his face resting on those hands as he just watched the jury be excused and leave the courtroom.

The next thing that will happen here will be the judge will set his sentencing date. But, you know, certainly a dramatic fall for the senator. You'll remember that in 2017, he was previously on trial for bribery and corruption involving different alleged schemes. There was a mistrial. In that case, the jury couldn't reach a verdict. And the judge had actually acquitted the senator some of the charges, and the prosecution did not agree during the trial.

So Senator Menendez had gotten a lifeline then, so to speak. And then, according to prosecutors and what the jury just found is that, this alleged scheme, this new bribery scheme began soon after that. And this involves, you know, we heard testimony during this trial involving a former US DEA official who said that he received a call from the senator, wanting him to interfere and will just stop interfering in the monopoly that had been given to one of the co- defendants in this case involving the certification of halal meat to Egypt.

[13:10:05]

We also heard testimony that the senator had given -- is part of this foreign agent charge that he had helped the government of Egypt while he was Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, that some of the steps he had taken then was he had a ghost written a letter for the Egyptians to use with other senators to try to lobby them to come over to free up aid. Prosecutors also said that they approved military aid at a record pace thanks to Senator Menendez.

They also say that Menendez had given the Egyptians a heads up on some questions that they were going to be asked by other senators involving the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. So, you know, these are things that the prosecution said was just not the senator acting as a diplomat or as a congressman, but that he was actually acting as an agent for the government of Egypt.

Then, of course, you know, the jury saw the gold bars that the senator was paid in bribes, and they actually were able to hold those guards early in the trial several weeks ago, part of just the collection of bribes that the jury has now found that the senator had received including a half a million dollars in cash that the FBI found in the home that he shares with his wife. Some of that cash had the senator's fingerprints on it.

They also were found stuffed in envelopes in pockets of jackets that bore his name. You know, the Menendez team tried to say that this was his wife's doing. You know, his wife, Nadine Menendez is also charged in this case, but she will go to trial at some point in the future. She was separate from this case because she's undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

But this was a massive conspiracy, massive corruption that prosecutors alleged here, and there were all these details that came out for the jury to digest. But this was a long trial. This is the 10th week. The jury is deliberating for about 13 hours but came back decisively across the board with finding the senator guilty on all counts of related to these multiple schemes.

A big win for the prosecution. And one thing that both of them had argued during their closing arguments, which in and of itself were very long, is the prosecution and Menendez's lawyer said that this was an important case, and a case that meant a lot to every party involved. There was a lot at stake for the prosecution, bringing a bribery case against a sitting US senator, a senior senator from New Jersey. But also obviously, a lot at stake for Senator Menendez who could face as much as 20 years in prison when the judge sentences him in a couple of months from now. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. And at his age, you know, that is some kind of sentence perhaps here, Kara. I wonder, Kara, I think one of the most stunning things as you mentioned. In 2017, he was facing bribery and corruption charges, and the jury not being able to reach a verdict. The idea that being given that lifeline, he turned around and began on this other path that has brought him to where he is today, 16 charges that he is being held responsible for.

I think a lot of people are surprised that he didn't take that as a sign to get his house in order.

SCANNELL: Yes, it is surprising. I mean, when you look at the timeline of the allegations that were charged in this case, they picked up, they begin right after he was -- he got off on that previous bribery charge.

Now in the bribery space, there also has been a number of rulings from the Supreme Court that has made it tougher for prosecutors to win prosecutions. They need to prove more in order to prove bribery cases, and based on this new hurdle that the jury was able to find that Menendez was guilty. So prosecutors were able to prove this case even at the higher level of proof than what they needed to prove, you know, back in Menendez's first trial and even before that.

So certainly the prosecution felt that they had a strong case, that they had mass enough evidence in this case. And their case, well, they did have one cooperating witness, he really was a narrow cooperator. He could talk about one of these bribery schemes. But the rest of this case was built on phone call, log messages, text messages, but a lot of it was circumstantial.

So it was the persuasion, you know, part of this was just of all the details, of all of the information and the timeline of events seeing that calls were made, and then actions were taken. That helped the prosecution prevail in this case. But, you know, it is fascinating that the senator had gotten through an initial bribery case, had then continued to rise and become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and then according to this jury, then abused that position in order to enrich himself and his wife even further.

We're still waiting for the senator to leave the court house. It is expected that he will speak to the cameras. He has generally made comments every day, so it'd be surprising if he doesn't. You know, and he's not automatically thrown out as a senator. There's not an automatic mechanism for that, even with a conviction on federal charges.

[13:15:00]

So it will be up to Congress and his fellow senators to decide if they're going to try to remove him, or remove him from the committee. He did have to sit down as chairman, but what his fate is until there is that next election in New Jersey, Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. Kara, if you can stand by for us, obviously, as we were following this breaking news. We may be coming back to you. Senator Bob Menendez found guilty of all 16 counts that he was facing in his federal corruption trial.

I want to go to Capitol Hill now for some reaction from CNN's Lauren Fox. He'd been facing among the 16 federal charges, Lauren, bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent, and obstruction. And I think one of the things, and you're not on Capitol Hill, you're here in our Washington Bureau.

But I think one of the things that kept raising questions, I know you were asking about it, so many journalists were, is that he continued to have access during this time period to classified information, to classified briefings. He had stepped aside, was supposed to be temporarily, as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he was still technically on the committee and able to access sensitive information.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the backlash even from some of his colleagues too, Brianna, was swift when he was charged last fall. There were more than 30 Democrats who were calling for him to resign his seat in the Senate, and repeatedly, our colleagues had been pressing Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as to why the senator was allowed to continue receiving classified briefings. And Schumer had repeatedly said that it was really up to Menendez to decide whether it was appropriate or not for him to be attending those meetings.

I would also just point out that right now, we are waiting to see what decision Menendez wants to make about his Senate seat. Does he choose to resign this seat? Does he continue wanting to serve? And if that is the case, what are the next steps, what are the options for Senate leadership if they wanted to push this issue.

One of the options is they could try to expel him. Again, we don't have any sense that that is the plan that they want to take right now. This is all breaking news. This is coming in very quickly. But it's just a good reminder, Brianna, that there is recourse that leadership would have if they wanted to force this issue. A lot of senators who were not calling him -- on him to resign last fall, said that they wanted to give him an opportunity in court.

Now, obviously, given the fact that he has now been found guilty on these counts, that gives you a sense that perhaps Democrats may be willing to more forcefully come out those who didn't last fall to say that he should step aside. But again, Brianna, we are waiting, we are standing by as to what Democratic leadership's plans are and what Senator Menendez's plans are when it comes to his Senate seat and his ability to serve in that chamber. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, Lauren, he is obviously someone who has decided that he does not want to go anywhere. He has resisted calls to resign. And it wouldn't be uncharacteristic for him to continue to do that, as he maybe continues with an appeals process here. Can you just talk a little bit more about the political headache that that creates for Democrats? How does that look, if they don't move to expel him from the chamber?

FOX: Yes. I mean, I think that this is going to be a question that leadership really has to answer for themselves, what is the process that they want moving forward if Senator Menendez decided that he did not want to resign. Again, we just don't know right now, Brianna, what his plans are, what leadership's plans are. But we are reaching out to sources trying to get additional information, because this is a very quickly evolving situation.

And obviously, politically, going into the November election, you know, Democratic leaders do not want their members to be facing questions about why they are still working with a colleague who has now been found guilty of such serious charges. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, incredibly serious, a senator who is arguably a risk to national security, even as he still has access to classified information about some of the things most important to US national security. Lauren, standby for us, I want to bring Harry Litman back in to talk a little bit about that.

He is, based on what this jury found, a risk to national security, Harry. And we now understand that sentencing is going to be October 29th, so not that far around the corner here. Give us a sense of what you would expect with the range of possibilities are on that.

LITMAN: OK. Well, you've heard the figure 20 years bandied about, but that's what the sort of statute is. What will determine it for the judge, who was considered a pretty tough sentencer, is the guidelines and even those will be subject to whatever the judge decide. But I think we're looking at guidelines of something like, we can do the calculations quickly but maybe 42 months.

[13:20:08]

But it is -- everything we've been talking about in the last 15 minutes now figures in to the sentencing, that this is not just a simple bribery but an actual malfeasance and a betrayal. This point, by the way, this is really at the cutting edge, legal point that he was found to be as a sitting senator, a foreign agent. Now, you know, who should have registered as a foreign agent, that is stunning.

So you -- the judge will have plenty of material to really, basically chastise him and say, look, you know, it's more than just enriching yourself. You did it at the expense of the US national interest. So it's a bit of an, you know, a new cutting edge kind of charge, but I think it really cuts badly against him. Of course, he's a 70-year-old man and the -- he will have possible appeals. But he's looking, it seems to me at least at a few years in hard time.

KEILAR: Yes. No, that's serious business especially for someone who is 70. I do want to go back to Lauren Fox, as you are getting some very important a reaction there on the Senate side. Lauren, what can you tell us?

FOX: Yes. We are now hearing officially from the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, that he is now calling on Senator Bob Menendez to resign his Senate seat. And I want to read his brief statement in full. It says, "in light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate and our country, and resign."

And we should note that just a couple of weeks ago, you know, Senator Chuck Schumer had continued to be asked about Senator Menendez's place in the United States Senate, his additional receiving of those classified briefings that we were talking about a few minutes ago. And, you know, Schumer had said repeatedly that he was disappointed, but he had stopped short of calling on Senator Menendez to resign. So this obviously a very significant development, Brianna.

KEILAR: In the meantime, Lauren, what can be done and what could have been done before? Could he be stripped of his committee assignments? Is there a way to essentially neuter him from having any access to this sensitive information?

FOX: Well, leadership could certainly strip him of positions on committees. I mean, as the United States senator, he still has classified status and can still receive classified briefings. I would point out that the other place of recourse if Senator Menendez chose not to resign is there could be a vote to expel him. That would take two thirds of the Senate.

But it is just important to point out that right now, we do not know what Senator Menendez's plans are and therefore it's hard to predict what recourse Senate leadership has, of course, getting this new information now that Senator Menendez is asking for him to resign. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. That is a big one there. All right, Lauren Fox, thank you so much.

Let's go back to Kara Scannell outside of the courthouse there in New York. Kara, where is Senator Menendez now? Has he left the courtroom? What can you tell us?

SCANNELL: So, Brianna, Senator Menendez is still inside the courthouse. We're waiting for him to leave. But we're also waiting for the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, to address the reporters. He doesn't normally give public statements like this, particularly outside right after a verdict. So this is going to be very interesting and telling of what he says.

This was an important case for the office. And important case, one of their themes is rooting out public corruption. So we're waiting for him to come out and address the reporters and the cameras. I'm told that will happen in the next five minutes or so.

But I can see some of his staff there assembling but he's not yet out there at the podium to say what the message of this conviction is. I mean, one thing that this office has spent a lot of time doing is bringing public corruption cases, doing a lot of investigations in this space. And, you know, notably, this is a democratically appointed, a President Biden appointed US attorney who brought the case against the Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. You know, this office is like to, you know, a self identifies as the Southern District, as an office that does things independently and on its own. That's another thing we might hear underscored again today.

You know, this office is also investigating a number of other high profile cases. They do have an investigation to the New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, although that is still just in the investigation stage, but waiting for the US attorney to come out and speak to reporters and to say what the importance of this prosecution is, you know.

Again, it's rare for him to come out and give these types of public statements, especially outside of the courthouse. We don't see that very often. So we'll listen closely to what message she has. Brianna?

[13:25:01]

KEILAR: Yes. And I just want to recap, Kara, for viewers who may just be joining us. This is our breaking news that New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, of course, a Democrat, has been found guilty of all 16 counts in this federal corruption trial against him. That includes counts of bribery, of fraud, of acting as a foreign agent and obstruction.

This was a trial that took several weeks. And actually let's listen in now if we can to Senator Menendez. Oh, this isn't this is not live, this is taped as we do await Senator Menendez.

But he was convicted of all 16 counts. And I think, Kara, one of the most stunning things is this was the senior New Jersey Democratic senator, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Any senator obviously has such an important role, but Senator Bob Menendez's role has been huge.

And he abused it, and the cost of his loyalty to his country, the cost of his patriotism, you know, a few $100,000 in cash, some of which, as you had reported, had his fingerprints on it, gold bars, a car, a no show job for his wife, Nadine, who is still awaiting her fate in this. This was ultimately the payoff that he is finally facing justice for.

SCANNELL: Yes, Brianna, that's right. I mean, the amount of evidence that came into this case showing the steps that the senator had taken, particularly when he was chairman and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I mean, that is the part that seemed the most offensive to the prosecution, that he had betrayed his trust to the American public in order to benefit and enrich him and his wife personally.

I mean, some of the things that the prosecution laid out before the jury that the senator did, was telling the Egyptians, through intermediaries, the number of staffs at the US Embassy in Cairo. That was something that prosecutors highlighted as something that was incredibly sensitive, and that could allow the Egyptians to track not only the staff at the embassy, but anyone else who was working through the embassy. So that was something that they underscore to the jury was a betrayal.

The other things, giving the Egyptians a heads up about questions, pointed questions they would receive about the murder of the former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He gave them a heads up in advance. Another thing, he wrote a letter for the Egyptians to use to lobby fellow US senators to try to get them comfortable with Egypt about human rights abuses to speed along the signing off of aid, military aid to Egypt.

So those were some of the abuses that prosecutors underscored during the trial. And some of the things that they felt were the most egregious, the most offensive that the senator was willing to betray his country. And that is why they charged him as acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt.

I mean, this also shows that the jury soundly rejected Menendez's arguments that these meetings were routine. I mean, another moment from this trial was Menendez at the Morton Steakhouse in Washington, DC sitting with Egyptian officials and his wife, Nadine Menendez. According to an FBI agent who testified in this case, had said to them, what else can my love do for you? You know, a sense that there was a transactional relationship between the senator and top military and intelligence officials, spies from Egypt.

And that is what the prosecution had really homed in on in this, as well as the other alleged bribes in this case, interfering in the prosecution of some of his co-defendant and the associates of another co-defendant know all things that are very much offensive to the Justice Department prosecutors, and something that this jury had found the senator was guilty of doing. Brianna?

KEILAR: And I should say, we did just get a two minute warning to comments from prosecutors of the Southern District of New York, so we're awaiting that. But while we do, Kara, and my apologies, if I have to interrupt you as that begins, what was it ultimately, that sealed the fate of Senator Menendez? What was it that allowed investigators to zero in on him and snag him?

SCANNELL: I mean, we don't have a lot of insight into what their initial tip offs were into this investigation. We do know that when they were at that Morton Steakhouse, they were there for something else and had kind of come upon this conversation that the senator was having with Egyptian officials.

But ultimately, it was through additional legwork that they had gotten search warrants to search his home, in a home he shared with his wife in New Jersey. And it was there that they found these gold bars, they found the envelopes of cash that have been stuffed into jacket pockets with his name, pay then in one-ninety something thousand dollars was stashed in a Forever 21 shopping bag in the closet. And those were all details that the prosecution had used to build their case where they were able to pull back, you know, sort of the covers of what Menendez was doing in order to receive that money.