Key witness accused of paying bribes to Sen. Menendez faces cross-examination
Defense attorneys are trying to distance their clients from key witness Jose Uribe’s testimony that he paid bribes to Nadine Menendez in return for favors from Sen. Bob Menendez.
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Cross-examination continued Tuesday in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez. Jose Uribe was back on the stand as one of the government's key witnesses.
Defense attorneys took their shots at Uribe all day long, as they attempted to portray him to jurors as a liar and someone whose testimony about the senator and his wife couldn't be trusted.
The defense has been suggesting that Uribe is testifying so that he can avoid a 95-year prison sentence.
Uribe already told jurors that he had an arrangement with Nadine Menendez. If he paid for her $60,000 Mercedes, she would grant him access to the senator.
Uribe wanted Sen. Menendez to stop an insurance fraud investigation into a friend, as well as his family’s insurance company. Help, which Uribe said Sen. Menendez allegedly gave him.
On the topic of the car he paid for, the defense has tried to suggest Uribe only gave Nadine a loan.
Uribe said to this, "The car payment was never a loan.”
The defense said in response, “That was a lie, correct?"
To which Uribe responded, “That was never a lie.”
MORE: Jose Uribe says he paid Nadine Menendez to get ‘power and influence from Sen. Menendez’
Attorneys for Sen. Menendez also grilled Uribe on past convictions that included insurance fraud, tax evasion and wire fraud when trying to get a federal loan.
Defense attorney Adam Fee barked at Uribe, “You agree you’ve been committing frauds and other crimes for 13 years?...The frauds you were running involved your family, your flesh and blood.”
The reference was to Uribe having his son Omar and then a close friend of the family, Anna Peguera, step in to run their company Phoenix Risk Management after Uribe lost his license. The defense was trying to show Uribe was putting family at risk.
The defense attorney for defendant Wael Hana stated, “Your crimes often involve lying…Fair to say, when your family is in trouble, there’s nothing you wouldn’t say?”
Uribe responded in a dry tone. “I have lied in the past to protect my family,” he stated.
Defense attorneys have stated the senator has not taken any bribes. They suggested that in 2018, when Uribe made the arrangement with Nadine, she and the senator were broken up and that Menendez’s meetings with Uribe were simply constituent work.
However, the prosecution has shown that Uribe had several meetings with the senator, many of which were expensive dinners at restaurants in northern New Jersey that Uribe paid for.
It's also been offered that Sen. Menendez summoned Uribe to his home and asked for the names of all of those who may be targeted by the insurance fraud investigation he was so concerned about.
At a later date, Sen. Menedez would summon Uribe and allegedly told him, “That thing that you asked me about, there doesn’t seem to be anything there.”
And then as the dust settled in 2022, during another dinner together, Menendez allegedly told Uribe, "I saved your ass twice. Not once, but twice.”
Federal prosecutors argue that Sen. Menendez was in on it all and that his wife Nadine was the conduit, which is why they have charged the senator with bribery, fraud and obstruction of justice.
The trial resumes on Wednesday. The prosecution is still laying out its case.
