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Arslanian Memedez trial delayed by motions, filings

By: Kristie Cattafi
and Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... The federal bribery and corruption trial of former Senator Bob Menendez's wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, has been adjourned until Monday. [04/07/2025]
..... The prosecution's star witness Jose Uribe - one of the three businessmen originally inducted along with Menendez -was expected to take the state last week, [04/03/2025] but motions and delays in assembling witness list from both the prosecution and the defense appear to have delayed the trial's progress.
..... After jury selection and opening argument, the trial resumed Thursday [04/03/2025] morning. Prosecutors form the Southern District of New York continue their case in a lower Manhattan courtroom, as FBI Special Agent Rachel Graves testified. U.S. Judge Sidney Stein told the jurors they were going to have a full day of testimony.
..... However, after about an hour, Arslanian Menendez's attorney, Barry Coburn, asked Stein for a sidebar that led to a recess before noon. What caused the recess and the eventual adjournment was redacted from court documents.
..... The former senator and two of the other co-defendants, Edgewater developer Fred Daibes and Egyptian American businessman Wael Hana, were convicted last summer. [2024]
..... Arslanian Menendez was initially supposed to be tried, alongside Menedez, Daibes and Hana, but her trial was delayed because she was diagnosed with breast cancer. initially referred to by the count only as a "serious medical condition, the diagnosis was revealed by hr husband during his trial.
..... Christopher Adams, a Monmouth County-based attorney and past president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, who has knowledge of the case, said he believes the "pause is due to some nonspecific health issues" Arslanian Menendez is facing. Adams does not represent anyone in the case.
..... "Apparently she hasn't been feeling well and had a fever," he said. "The judge asked for periodic updates.
..... Adams went on to say he has no information to confirm but would assume the delay is "related to her treatments."
..... "Nadine is suffering from Grade 3 breast cancer, which will require her to have mastectomy surgery," a statement from Menendez said. "We are of course, concerned about the seriousness and advanced state of the disease. She will require follow up surgery and possibly radiation treatment."
..... Last month, [03/2025] days before jury selection started in Arslanian Menendez's trial, Menendez took to social media with a desperate plea to President Donald Trump saying his wife is being "forced by the government to go to trial tomorrow" despite having breast cancer reconstructive surgery days earlier.
..... "Only the arrogance of the SDNY can be so cruel and inhumane," said the post. "They should let her fully recover!" Menendez also tagged Trump in the post.
..... There had been no public filings with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York noting the surgery or requesting a delay because of it.

Stein manages a range of filings that cerate delays

..... In a Tuesday [04/01/2025] telephone conference, Stein said there would be no court on Wednesday, April 2, [2025] and that the trial would resume on Thursday. [04/03/2025] before noon, the trial went into recess until Monday. [04/07/2025]
..... Prosecutors wrote to the judge on Thursday [04/03/2025] to make a motion that Coburn provide witness materials they said should have been provided days ago. Coburn also wrote to Stein on Thursday, [04/03/2025] complaining that the prosecution was attempting to call two witnesses who weren't on the pretrial identification list.
..... Both sides have written letters to Stein to gripe about late-night filings to convey a range of complaints regarding witnesses and materials.
..... Coburn has brought to the judge's attention that he and his colleagues "continue to receive encrypted emails form the government in the middle of the night."
..... coburn said in court documentation they were notified late of the government's intention to call Uribe to the stand on April 1, [2025] leaving them no time to go through the 3,500 exhibits of material in order to cross-examine him.
..... "The sudden changes to the government;s predictions have has Ms. Schwietz [Cobern's colleague] and I working virtually around-the-clock through this past weekend, including most of the night Sunday night, [03/30/2025] and it obviously is critical that I be fully prepared for the Uribe examination," Coburn wrote to the judge on March 31. [2025]

Uribe will be sentenced in September [2025]

..... As Arslanian Menendez's trial unfolded over the last two weeks, Uribe's attorney requested a delay in his sentencing. Stein granted that delay Thursday. [04/03/2025]
..... Uribe, one of the three New Jersey businessmen who were originally indicted alongside Menendez and his wife, was supposed to be sentenced on April 24. [2025] Given the delayed start of Arslanian Menendez's trial, he will now be sentenced on September 4. [2025]
..... Uribe pleaded guilty to seven charges and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. he spent several days over the summer testifying against Menendeze and admitted to bribing him.
..... According to a plea agreement, Uribe could face up to 95 years in prison though he could win leniency because of his cooperation with federal productions and his testimony against the other defendants.
..... During his testimony in the nine-week trial hast year, [2024] Uribe admitted to bribing the senator with the help of his wife.
..... "Have you ever committed a federal crime?" federal prosecutor Lara Pomerantz asked Uribe during the former senator's trial.
..... "Yes, I have," Uribe responded.
..... "Does that include bribery of a public official?" she asked.
..... "Yes, I did,: Uribe said.
..... During his testimony, Uribe said he wanted to stop stop the New Jersey Attorney General's office form prosecution his friend Elvis Parra, a trucking company owner who had been indicted on insurance fraud charges. he also wanted to derail the expanding investigation into the company, Prestige Trucking Express, that Parra created afterward with his business partner Bienvenido Hernandez, as well as Uribe's insurance brokerage, Phoenix Risk Management. Phoenix secured insurance for both of Parra's firms.
..... "I agreed with Nadine Menendez and other people to provide a care for Nadine in order to get the power and influence of Mr. Menendez," Uribe said.

What are the charges?
What comes next?

..... The federal indictment against Menendez was first unsealed in September 2023 and was updated with superseding indictments three times - in October of that year [2023] and in January and March 2024. It alleged that Menendez, his wife and the three New Jersey businessmen wire part of a bribery scheme. Menendez and his wife allegedly received, among other things, cash gold bars and a luxury care in exchange for the sue of his political influence.
..... Daibes and Hana will report opt federal prison on May 19, [2025] after Stein granted each a 45-day extension to allow them to prepare and then testify at the Arslanian Menendez trial.
..... Menendez, Daibes and Hana have all filed motions for new trails and are seeking bail pending the appeals.
..... After making his initial motion, Daibes was assigned to the prison camp at FCI Fairton, in South Jersey. Hana was assigned to FCI Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania.

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