New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez trial date set as prosecution signals one of the defendants might be making a deal
NEW YORK -- New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was scheduled to be back in Manhattan Federal Court for his corruption case Monday, but a judge granted Menendez's request to not appear in court.
The judge didn't say in court why he granted the request not to show up, but the assumption is it had something to do with government affairs.
Prosecutors say he and his wife Nadine accepted gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for his political influence.
- Read More: New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez pleads not guilty to federal bribery charges in Manhattan courtroom
The judge rejected Nadine Menendez's request not to appear, so she was in federal court, along with the three other defendants.
The judge set a May 6 trial date.
Nadine Menendez had nothing to say as she left Manhattan's federal court Monday. She appeared in court with three other defendants in the case: Fred Daibes, a New Jersey developer, Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, and Jose Uribe.
The feds accuse Menendez and his wife of taking bribes from all three businessmen, saying the FBI seized gold bars and close to $500,000 in case from the couples' home and safe deposit box. Some of the money, the government said, was stuffed in envelopes in the senator's jacket, and the envelopes bore Dabie's fingerprints.
Daibes is also facing another case in New Jersey.
Court documents reveal Menendez provided sensitive information to Egypt's government, and that Hana and Nadine Menendez helped facilitate meetings between the senator and Egyptian officials.
Menendez and all of the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and are choosing not to comment to the media.
In court, the government said that by trial, there may not be five defendants, which raises the possibility that one of the defendants is cutting a deal with the feds.
The prosecution said it has a massive amount of evidence, including information from 50 different electronic device, and that it couldn't provide all of the evidence to the defense until early December. The judge was a little puzzled the prosecution couldn't get all of the documents more quickly.
The prosecution said some of the evidence includes classified information, and there could be a challenge under a government clause from the senator's legal team.
