Bundles of Cash Found at Menendez’s House Weren’t From His Bank: Prosecutors

Some of the cash found squirreled away in New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s home by federal investigators in the summer of 2022 had been issued by a bank where he’d never opened an account, according to prosecutors, a claim they said suggests the New Jersey senator and his wife had been given the money “by another person.” In court records filed Friday and obtained by The New York Times, prosecutors revealed that at least part of the staggering $500,000 haul discovered in jacket pockets, closets, and a safe around the Menedezes’ house had been wrapped in bands from a bank where the couple “had no known depository account.” The filing came as a response to a bid by Sen. Menendez’s lawyers to convince a judge to exclude the fact of the cash from his trial next month, according to the Times. “The government should not be permitted to try to sway the jury with dramatic presentation of valuable items bearing only a speculative connection to any charged offense,” Menendez’s attorneys wrote. Prosecutors responded by pointing out that the loose money constitutes potential evidence that the 70-year-old lawmaker and his wife accepted bribes in return for political favors. The Menendezes and their co-defendants, two Jersey businessmen, have denied wrongdoing.