Menendez lawyer says jurors believed friendship defense

An attorney for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said Wednesday that jurors in the New Jersey Democrat’s corruption trial supported the defense’s argument.

There was no decision in the case, which ended in a mistrial, but the defense argued that Menendez’s friendship with a wealthy eye doctor outweighed the government’s allegations of bribery.

“The government kept saying throughout the trial that friends can bribe friends, and as a technical legal matter, that’s true,” Jonathan Cogan said, according to The Associated Press.

“But the question presented here wasn’t whether it’s possible, but whether it’s fair to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, whether that’s what happened here,” he said. “When you have a close friendship, which the government had no way to dispute, our argument is that even if you’re left unsure about what happened, you can’t conclude beyond a reasonable doubt there was bribery.”

{mosads}

The federal judge presiding over the case declared a mistrial last week after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous decision on any of the charges against Menendez and Salomon Melgen, the Florida eye doctor who was the senator’s co-defendant in the trial.

Ten of the jurors favored acquitting Menendez, while two favored conviction. 

During the trial, which spanned months, federal prosecutors argued that Menendez accepted lavish gifts, political donations and vacations from Melgen in exchange for using his office to benefit the eye doctor’s business and personal interests.

Defense attorneys argued, however, that the benefits exchanged were products of a decades-old friendship between the two men — not a corrupt bargain.

The mistrial declaration was celebrated by Menendez and his allies as a victory. It is not yet clear if the government will seek to retry Menendez and Melgen, and the judge in the case has not set a deadline for prosecutors to decide whether they will do so.

Menendez is up for reelection in 2018, though he has not said definitively whether he will seek another term in the Senate. After the mistrial was declared, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for Congress to reopen an ethics investigation into Menendez’s actions.