Top US Senator Bob Menendez’s corruption trial begins
Al Jazeera
Jury selection begins in trial accusing top Democrat of accepting bribes and acting as unregistered foreign agent.
Jury selection has begun in the corruption trial of Bob Menendez, a top United States senator who is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for a range of favours and acting as an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government.
Menendez, 70, faces 16 criminal charges and is being tried alongside two New Jersey businessmen in Manhattan federal court.
Menendez sat with his lawyers on Monday and listened as Judge Sidney H Stein told several dozen prospective jurors about the charges.
The judge told them the “sitting US senator from the state of New Jersey” had been charged in a conspiracy in which he allegedly “agreed to accept bribes and accepted bribes”.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine, has also been charged but will be tried separately. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
