Menendez trial still set for May, but wife’s will be delayed

Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial will start in May — without his wife.

A federal judge on Thursday refused to delay the trial because of health issues facing Nadine Menendez, who asked to postpone the trial because of an unspecified “serious medical condition.”

The New Jersey Democrat and his wife face bribery and extortion charges stemming from his relationship with three New Jersey businesspeople, who are also co-defendants.

While federal prosecutors were open to a delay so they didn’t have to try their case twice, the senator’s defense team urged the judge to keep the May 6 start date to the trial.

Menendez attorney Adam Fee argued against the delay because the senator’s career is affected every day the charges loom over him. Menendez is not running for reelection in the June Democratic primary but has left open the door to running as an independent.

Federal prosecutors wanted to have everyone on trial at once, even if that meant pushing back the start date into the summer. They pointed out during a two-hour status hearing on Thursday that the senator himself had asked for a delay not long ago.

“We don’t need it anymore and we don’t want it,” Fee said. “Senator Menendez wants his May 6 trial.”

Federal Judge Sidney Stein of the Southern District of New York said he wanted to keep the trial on track, using the date he set last fall, and suggested more was going on than met the eye.

“There is a gamesmanship here, but I am trying to look through the gamesmanship,” Stein said.

An attorney for one of the businesspeople, Lawrence Lustberg, told the judge there is “zero gamesmanship.”

The judge said he had “a different view of gamesmanship.”

It’s now unclear when Nadine Menendez will face trial. A tentative date is now set for July, but Stein said it’s “quite uncertain” when the trial will actually begin. The senator’s trial is expected to take six weeks.

The judge also refused to dismiss charges against any of the defendants after several of them filed a variety of motions to get accusations thrown out. There were several other motions, like trying to get the trial moved to New Jersey, that the judge also denied.

Stein said many of the matters were best left in the hands of the jury.

There are still issues looming in the case that could create more hiccups. Lustberg himself could be called as a witness. He is representing one businessperson in this case, Egyptian Wael Hana, but has also represented another defendant, New Jersey developer Fred Daibes, in other matters. In this case, Menendez is accused of trying to help Daibes with some of his other legal troubles.

Lustberg and prosecutors are working out a deal where he can continue to represent Hana, but the other defendants need to sign off on it, or else Lustberg could be disqualified. If Hana doesn’t have a well-prepared attorney representing him, that could force a delay.

In an interview, Lustberg said he saw things getting smoothed out.