Prosecutors' star witness faces cross-examination in Sen. Bob Menendez bribery trial

Businessman tells jurors he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez in 2019

Washington — A New Jersey businessman who says he bribed Sen. Bob Menendez by buying his wife a Mercedes-Benz convertible for the purpose of disrupting two criminal investigations will continue to be cross-examined Tuesday in the Democrat's corruption trial.

Over two days, Jose Uribe, an insurance broker who is the prosecution's star witness, has detailed how he says he bribed the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, in order to stop criminal investigations by the New Jersey attorney general into his business associates. 

Uribe is the only defendant to plead guilty in the case. The others, including the senator and his wife, have pleaded not guilty. Menendez is being tried alongside Wael Hana, the owner of a halal certification company, and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer — both are also accused of bribing the senator. 

Uribe testified Monday that he asked the senator directly for his help with quashing the investigations during two meetings in August and September 2019.

The first meeting allegedly came months after he said he met Nadine Menendez in a restaurant parking lot, where he claims he handed her $15,000 in cash for the down payment on a luxury convertible. After that, he made monthly payments on the vehicle and sought to conceal his involvement in them, Uribe told jurors. 

"I remember saying to her, 'If your problem is a car, my problem is saving my family, and we went into the agreement of helping each other,'" Uribe said. 

During a dinner in August 2019 with the senator and his wife, the investigations were discussed, Uribe testified. An employee who Uribe considered family was under investigation and a business associate had been charged with insurance fraud. The business associate ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. 

"He would look into it," Uribe said of Bob Menendez's response after he asked him to "stop this investigation." "I asked him to help me get peace for me and my family." 

The second meeting, Uribe said, happened over brandy and cigars in Nadine Menendez's backyard on Sept. 5, 2019. 

The two men were alone when Bob Menendez told Uribe he had a meeting the next day at his Newark office with the New Jersey attorney general, according to Uribe. 

The senator, he said, rang a little bell sitting on the table and called for his wife using the French word for "my love." She brought out a piece of paper and returned inside, Uribe testified. Bob Menendez asked him to write down the names of the people he was concerned about, Uribe said, recalling that the senator then folded the piece of paper and put it in his pants pocket. 

Uribe said he and Bob Menendez didn't discuss the car payments during their conversations. He assumed the senator had known about the payments and he was never told by Nadine Menendez not to keep it a secret. 

The day after Bob Menendez met with New Jersey's attorney general, Nadine Menendez asked Uribe to meet the senator at his apartment building. The senator told him there was "no indication of an investigation against my family," Uribe testified. 

Uribe said he received a call from the senator on Oct. 29, 2019, when he said Menendez told him: "That thing that you asked me about, there's nothing there. I give you your peace." 

Nearly a year later, the two men were at dinner when Bob Menendez told him, "I saved your a** twice. Not once but twice," Uribe testified. 

In:
• Bob Menendez
• New Jersey
• Corruption
• Bribery

Caitlin Yilek

Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

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