Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni of the Southern District of New York began his closing argument Monday in the bribery and extortion trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, by reminding jurors that the FBI found gold bars and envelopes of cash stashed all around the New Jersey home Menendez shared with his wife, including in the senator’s jacket pockets and inside his shoes.
Monteleoni said Menendez’s co-defendants, New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, gave the Menendezes “hundreds of thousands of dollars of gold, cash and other payments” in exchange for “a promise of power.”
