WASHINGTON – A federal judge has dealt Sen. Bob Menendez a setback in his defense against corruption charges, denying nearly all of the New Jersey Democrat's motions to dismiss the charges or throw out evidence.
Judge William Walls dismissed four of the bribery counts against Menendez and his friend and political donor, Salomon Melgen. All of those charges were related to donations Melgen made to Menendez's legal defense fund, the Fund to Uphold the Constitution.
But Menendez's most ambitious motions – attempting to have the entire case thrown out for prosecutorial misconduct or violations of Constitutional protections for legislative activity -- were denied. He still faces numerous other charges: six bribery counts, one conspiracy count, one count of violating the travel act, three counts of honest services fraud and one count of making false statements.
Rulings on several of Menendez's motions were still pending as of 5:40 p.m., but the rulings that had been published had almost entirely gone against the senator.
Federal prosecutors have alleged that Melgen, a South Florida eye doctor, showered Menendez with campaign donations and gifts in exchange for the senator's official influence to help in a business dispute, an $8.9 million Medicare billing fight and getting visas for three of the donor's girlfriends. Menendez and Melgen have said they will be found innocent.
Notably, in an era of massive Super PAC spending, Walls concluded that Melgen's donations to a Democratic Super PAC could still form the basis of a bribery charge, even though the money was given to an outside group, not Menendez directly. The April indictment in part cites earmarked donations Melgen made to Majority PAC, which backs Democratic Senate candidates, and spent heavily to help Menendez win re-election in 2012. Menendez lawyers argued that he could not benefit from a donation to a third party. Walls disagreed.
"Even if contributions to Majority PAC had no objective value to Menendez, they unquestionably had value to Majority PAC," the judge wrote, adding it is a crime to corruptly seek "anything of value, even for another person or entity, in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act."
Menendez sought to have the entire indictment thrown out based on prosecutorial errors and his contention that the actions he performed were protected by the Constitution's speech and debate clause – which shields legislative acts from prosecution.
Walls dismissed the charges related to the legal fund because those contributions were made in 2010, while the indictment alleges that Melgen bribed Menendez with donations to help him win re-election in 2012.
The trial is not expected to begin until next year, likely in the fall.
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