Five ways the Sen. Robert Menendez indictment is oh, so very Jersey

The case against Sen. Robert Menendez had lots of headline-grabbing details: allegations about cash stuffed in envelopes, bars of gold and a Mercedes convertible.

But laced throughout the 39-page indictment of New Jersey’s senior senator are reminders of corruption cases that are part of Jersey lore. Here are five ways the case, as outlined by federal prosecutors, is incredibly Jersey.

1) Stacks of cash

When the FBI raided the Menendez home, prosecutors say agents found more than $480,000 in cash, “much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe." Some of the envelopes were found in a jacket pocket that had the senator’s name embroidered on the front, according to the indictment.

That's reminiscent of the 2019 indictment of Mary Dougherty. It says when she was running for what’s now known as the Morris County Commission, she accepted a Starbucks coffee cup packed with $100 bills — $10,000 total from a tax attorney who wanted to keep working for the county. The indictment cited the unnamed tax attorney as a cooperating witness. She later pleaded guilty to falsifying an election report — acknowledging she returned the money but asked the tax attorney to instead give her four checks, each under a $2,500 campaign limit, knowing that he was falsely providing them under different names to skirt campaign laws.

Or go back just a bit further, to when New Jersey saw the 2002 guilty plea of Robert Janiszewski, the Hudson County executive. He admitted accepting cash bribes stuffed into envelopes as well. Janiszewski ultimately wore a wire to cooperate with corruption investigations and admitted taking $100,000 from county contractors.

2) A ‘paper’ trail in texts

Prosecutors allege Menendez took part in a scheme to make a New Jersey halal meat business the sole exporter to Egypt — and the profits helped fund bribes to Menendez and wife of three years, Nadine Arslanian Menendez.

Much of the evidence is laid out in texts to and from Nadine Arslanian Menendez.

In several instances, the indictment quotes text messages it says she wrote to the senator complaining about having not received a payment.

“I have been so upset all morning. Will left for Egypt yesterday supposedly and now thinks he’s king of the world and has both countries wrapped around his pinky,” she wrote, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say that’s a reference to Wael Hana, the meat business’ owner, who is also charged in the indictment and goes by Will. “I really hope they replace him.”

Another time, the indictment says she texted, “I am soooooo upset,” stating that Hana had not left her an envelope, and asking her husband “I don’t know if I should text Fred or wait what should I do?” Prosecutors say she is referring to Fred Daibes, another businessman accused in the bribery schemes.

The indictment says Bob Menendez replied: “No, you should not text or email.”

The role of text communication in the prosecutors’ case brings the Bridgegate fiasco to mind. Staffers to former Gov. Chris Christie in 2013 enacted a scheme to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing the Republican governor’s reelection, by shutting down lanes to the George Washington Bridge for a week. The story came spilling out after an email from Bridget Ann Kelly — the governor’s deputy chief of staff — to David Wildstein, who worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, became public: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

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Menendez indictment: What to know

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• It’s the second time Menendez has faced a bribery indictment, but the last ended in a hung jury.
• Prosecutors say Menendez and his wife took gold bars, a luxury vehicle, $480,000 in cash and financial favors. Menendez denies the allegations.
• The indictment says Egypt gave one of the businessmen a lucrative halal meat contract that helped fund the bribes.
• Menendez is also accused of abusing his influence to help Egypt, including ghostwriting a letter for Egyptian officials seeking U.S. aid.
• Here's a breakdown of the key figures discussed in the indictment.
• Top New Jersey Democrats are calling for his resignation. So are Sens. Cory Booker and Kristen Gillibrand.
• Menendez is up for re-election in 2024. He's vowed to fight the charges.

3) A deal allegedly sealed over an expensive steakhouse dinner

In May 2019, Menendez and his new girlfriend met with Hana and an Egyptian intelligence official at Menendez’s senate office in Washington, D.C, according to the indictment

“Later that evening, the same participants met at a steakhouse in Washington, D.C. for dinner,” it says.

Steakhouse dinners feature prominently in many a Garden State political deal gone bad.

In September 2011, David Samson, a former New Jersey state attorney general and the chairman of the Port Authority, had dinner with the CEO of United Airlines at Novita, a pricey restaurant in Gramercy Park. Samson later pleaded guilty to a felony bribery charge, and acknowledged he asked that the airline restore service from Newark to an airport close to his vacation home in South Carolina, in exchange for his support for a new hangar at the Newark airport, which is operated by the Port Authority.

That flight became known as “The Chairman’s Flight” since few people flew that route other than the chairman of the Port Authority. Ultimately, the United CEO would lose his job and Samson would plead guilty to the bribery scheme.

Then there was also the steakhouse meeting of Chris Christie and George Norcross, the political organizer and power broker known for his vast influence over South Jersey Democrats. In February 2003, Christie was the federal prosecutor for New Jersey and the state attorney general’s office was investigating Norcross’ political dealings.

Alec McGillis wrote in The New Republic about the steakhouse meetup: “It was, to put it mildly, highly unorthodox for a U.S. attorney to sit down with a political boss who was the subject of state and SEC attention. But Christie brushed off the criticisms. ‘I’m very careful with who I would go out with,’ he said. ‘If I’m looking at somebody, I’d try to stay away from them.’”

Christie would later refuse to take the case, saying two administrations of the attorney general’s office mishandled the case. He went on to have a very productive alliance with Norcross and his stable of Democrats in the Legislature.

4) A Jersey restaurant parking lot and crime = perfect together.

Okay, it’s not specifically called a “diner” in the indictment, but prosecutors say that in April 2019, Nadine Arslanian Menendez met with a New Jersey businessman named Jose Uribe in the parking lot of an unnamed restaurant. Prosecutors say he gave her an envelope with $15,000 in cash that was for a down payment for a new Mercedes Benz convertible.

Diners and their parking lots are legendary in New Jersey politics and crime.

In 2014, political operative Sean Caddle met with a hitman in an Elizabeth diner parking lot to pay him for murdering a Jersey City man, who was the son of a former state legislator. Prosecutors in that case say the victim had threatened to expose corruption by Caddle in the management of several political action committees. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire in 2022, and this summer was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

And the Seville Diner in East Brunswick plays prominently in an unsolved murder of Frank Lagano, who was found shot in the head in the building’s parking lot. He was a police informant whose case has raised troubling questions about whether there was law enforcement corruption tied to his murder.

Then there was the body of a man believed to have mafia connections found in the trunk of a car parked at the Huck Finn diner in Union.

Diners and their parking lots also played a starring role in the dealings of Solomon Dwek, a real estate investor turned FBI informant who bribed lawmakers and mayors across the Garden State.

5) Corruption runs deep in New Jersey

Corruption runs so deep, that Bob Menendez got his start in politics by testifying against his political boss. In 1982, at the age of 28, Menendez was the secretary to the Union City Board of Education when he discovered that a construction company owned by a mobster was stealing from the city with the help of school board members.

Menendez went to Mayor William Musto, and nothing was done. His testimony against Musto was widely considered an act of bravery, not just because of the mob involvement, but because a Union City judge had been murdered a few years before.

It’s been 41 years, and despite having averted a corruption conviction in 2017 when his last indictment ended in a mistrial, Menendez finds himself on the other end of a corruption scheme and his Democratic Party allies are breaking ranks. Most notably, Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Cory Booker are calling for his resignation.