New photos admitted as evidence in the U.S. v. Menendez trial shed light on discoveries made by federal agents during their raid of the New Jersey senator’s home.
Nearly $500,000 in cash and $150,000 in gold bars were strategically concealed throughout his cluttered New Jersey home, including a hefty stack of bills crammed inside a Timberland boot.
This week, jurors were presented with numerous photographs capturing scenes inside the Englewood Cliffs residence where the Democratic senator and his wife, Nadine, live. Nadine’s trial was delayed until July while she undergoes treatment for breast cancer.
Photographs showed cash stuffed inside designer bags and shoes, gold bars, multiple cell phones, jewelry, a cluttered closet filled with clothing and other items and a Mercedes-Benz that was allegedly one of the bribes given to the couple.
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The “sheer volume of bills” found posed a challenge for agents, prompting Special Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros to request assistance, he said during Thursday’s testimony. The task of manually tallying the $486,461 in bills proved daunting, necessitating the dispatch of two cash-counting machines from the FBI’s Manhattan office.
“I was directed that if I seized the cash, that I needed to count it in place,” Kougemitros said. “So, I called in reinforcements.”
Kougemitros said the city brought in the cash-counting machines and “with all the cash that we started finding, we counted it all.”
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In exchange for the cash, gold bars and other luxurious gifts, Menendez allegedly used his power as senator to benefit the governments of Qatar and Egypt and give business favors to three New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, co-defendants in the trial.
All have pleaded not guilty except Uribe, who agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify at the trial.
This is the second time in a decade Menendez has been accused in a federal corruption case.
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