New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez said Friday that he was leaning on his faith as he left Manhattan federal court, where jurors in his high-stakes bribery trial deliberated for three hours without reaching a verdict.
“I have faith in God and the jury,” the embattled Democrat said in both English and Spanish before stepping into a waiting black Lincoln sedan.
A panel of six men and six women began huddling inside the courthouse just after 2 p.m. to decide whether to convict Menendez, 70, of accepting bribes as part of a sprawling scheme to scoop up gold bars, cash and other goodies while catering to the whims of three Garden State businessmen and the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
The jury left for the day shortly after 5 p.m., and will resume deliberations Monday morning.
The senator — who’s been spotted belting out show tunes in court to calm his nerves — is charged with leveraging his powerful post as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to tamper in state and federal probes, protect a shady halal meat monopoly, and act as an illegal foreign agent of Egypt and Qatar while businessmen Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe showered him and his wife with bribes.
Jurors are weighing whether to find him guilty of 16 different felonies, including bribery, extortion and obstructing justice.
The top counts he faces carry a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Hana, 40, and Daibes, 64, are also charged in connection to the alleged bribery plot.
Menendez’s wife Nadine Menendez, 57, also faces charges, but her case was severed from her husband’s and pushed back until later this year while she recovers from breast cancer.
Uribe, a disgraced insurance broker and convicted fraudster, pleaded guilty earlier this year and testified during the trial that he bought Nadine a new Mercedes in exchange for promises that the senator would tamper with state criminal probes into his close colleagues.
Menendez, a Democrat, has refused to resign from his Senate post and has maintained his innocence.
His lawyers have used a “blame-my-wife” defense, arguing that Nadine kept him in the dark about asking Hana, Daibes and Uribe for the payoffs.
Lawyers for Daibes and Hana have argued that the cash and gold bars were “gifts,” and not illegal bribes.
