The criminal trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, currently set for May 6, may be derailed by one of his co-defendants’ desire to potentially call another co-defendant’s lawyer as a trial witness, counsel for all parties revealed during a status conference Wednesday.
Menendez and New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes are set to go to trial on bribery and fraud charges in May. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein of the Southern District of New York summoned all the parties’ lawyers to a conference this week after the attorneys indicated they were struggling to reach an agreement on a stipulation to be signed by Hana’s lead attorney Lawrence Lustberg of Gibbons PC.
Wael Hana, co-defendant of Sen. Robert Menendez, arrives at federal court in Manhattan on March 11. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg
