Sen. Menendez’s corruption trial ends in mistrial; jury deadlocks
NEWARK, N.J. — A federal judge on Thursday declared a mistrial in U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption case, leaving federal bribery charges against him unresolved and the New Jersey Democrat secure in his seat for now in a closely divided chamber.
The mistrial came after seven days and more than 30 hours of deliberations. Twice the jury reported it was at an impasse — the latest of those reports on Thursday, about an hour before Judge William Walls declared a mistrial.
As Judge Walls polled jurors one-by-one in chambers, Mr. Menendez and his lawyers suddenly emerged looking upbeat. Mr. Menendez was seen hugging family members as his legal team mouthed the word “mistrial” to one another.
Jurors earlier Thursday reported they were hopelessly deadlocked over the charges that Mr. Menendez accepted gifts and lavish trips from his co-defendant, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, in return for his influence, then lied about it. Prosecutors will have to decide whether to retry the case. Mr. Menendez, in the meantime, will hang onto a seat that Republicans had hoped to snatch had he been convicted and expelled from the Senate.
Those hopes are gone now, but Mr. Menendez’s long-term future is still murky.
He faces re-election next year and will now have to plot his political future with the possibility of a damaging retrial hanging over any campaign. Headlines from the trial just concluded have already sunk his approval ratings.
Potential Democratic replacements, meanwhile, are left without clarity about whether the senator will be back on the ballot and whether they should ramp up their own campaigns.
For now, though, Mr. Menendez will continue a public career that has already spanned more than four decades. He has vowed to clear his name and win another term to vindicate himself in both the eyes of the law and the public.
Mr. Menendez, 63, was charged with accepting bribes, and lying about it, in the form of lavish gifts and campaign support from Dr. Melgen, also 63, a friend and donor.
Prosecutors alleged that Menendez, in exchange, pressured federal officials to make policy decisions that would aid Dr. Melgen.
The failure to convict Mr. Menendez delivered a blow to the Justice Department, which in this case brought its first charges against a senator since an embarrassment involving Alaska’s Ted Stevens. He was convicted in 2008, but the decision was later overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct.
The last senator whose conviction stood is another New Jerseyan, Harrison A. Williams, who was caught in the Abscam scandal and found guilty in 1981.
Had Mr. Menendez been convicted and expelled from the Senate, Gov. Christie, a Republican, would have appointed his replacement. But Democrat Phil Murphy won New Jersey’s gubernatorial race this month and will replace Mr. Christie on Jan. 16. Even if Mr. Menendez is forced out at a later date, Mr. Murphy would pick his replacement.
Senate Democrats have signaled that they would be unlikely, under any circumstance, to vote to expel Mr. Menendez while Mr. Christie is in office and thus hand a seat to the GOP. It takes a two-thirds vote to expel a senator, so at least 14 Democrats would have to side with Republicans to kick out Mr. Menendez.