It’s a ‘boot-load’ of cash.
New photos shown at Sen. Bob Menendez’s federal bribery trial reveal over $600,000 in cash and gold bars stashed around his cluttered New Jersey home — including a stack of bills stuffed inside a Timberland boot.
Jurors at the Menendez trial, which began last week in Manhattan federal court, were shown dozens of photos taken inside the Garden State Democrat’s Englewood Cliff, N.J. house during a June 2022 raid by the FBI.
The pictures, presented in court Thursday, show gold bars, small and large, some appearing to be older with nicks and scratches on the surface while others wrapped in clear plastic packaging.
Thick stacks of cash inside various bags — and even a pile of money stowed inside a well-worn brown Timberland work boot, according to a report by NJ.com, can also be seen in the images.
Other photos show 100-, 50- and 20-dollar bills neatly laid out in grids, presumably placed that way by federal agents during the raid as part of evidence gathering.
Jurors also saw closets stuffed to the gills with clothes and belongings; a tight bedroom with an exercise bike in it, and other untidy spaces inside the modest white house crammed with furniture and other items.
Special Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros testified Thursday about leading the raid on the home the veteran Democrat shares with his wife, Nadine Menendez — who is also charged in the case but won’t be going on trial later this year.
Agents found 13 gold bars worth $150,000 and over $480,000 in cash found in closets, inside the senator’s jackets and in designer bags, Kougemitros said.
Kougemitros testified that there was so much money in the home, agents struggled to tally the $486,461 worth of bills by hand and he had to call for two cash-counting machines to be sent over from the FBI’s Manhattan office, according to NJ.com.
“I was directed that if I seized the cash, that I needed to count it in place,” Kougemitros testified. “So I called in reinforcements.”
Menendez and his wife are charged with a slew of corruption and bribery crimes for allegedly pocketing the gold, cash, a Mercedes convertible and other luxury gifts.
In exchange, prosecutors say that Menendez, 70, used the power of his office, including heading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to dole out favors for the governments of Egypt and Qatar and for three New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe.
Hana and Daibes are currently on trial alongside the senior senator while Uribe pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the feds.
Nadine’s trial was postponed until at least July so she can receive treatment for breast cancer, including getting a mastectomy, her husband announced last week.
During opening statements, lawyers for Menendez tried to blame Nadine, claiming she inherited the bars of gold from her Lebanese family and that her hubby didn’t even know they were in the home.
Defense attorney Avi Weitzman said it was a part of Nadine’s family culture to collect gold as it was often given as gifts at christenings and baby namings.
Similarly, Weitzman said Menendez formed the longtime habit of withdrawing cash and keeping it at home because of generational trauma he inherited from his Cuban refugee family which lost everything and kept what little money they had where they lived.
On Tuesday, John Moldovan, the general counsel for Hana’s halal company, continued testifying about the Menendez’ alleged corrupt relationship with Hana.
Hana helped save Nadine’s home from foreclosure by giving her money for a mortgage payment, Moldovan testified. He said Hana had asked him to help disguise the money to Nadine as a loan rather than a gift.
Menendez in exchange allegedly took actions to help Hana’s company secure a monopoly with Egypt so that any meat from the country to the US would have to be certified by Hana’s business, according to prosecutors.
Josh Paul, an ex state department official, took the stand after Moldovan to give expert testimony on congressional funding in Egypt.
All the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial will be on pause after Tuesday for a week for a Memorial Day break.
Menendez — who dodged an unrelated corruption conviction after a mistrial in 2017 — stepped down from the the Foreign Relations Committee following the new charges.
With Post wires
