Prosecutors: Menendez tried to hide free flights, hotel stay

NEWARK » U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez didn’t report on Senate disclosure forms free flights and a luxury hotel stay paid for by a wealthy donor over several years, according to testimony Wednesday in the two men’s bribery trial.

Prosecutors are seeking to show jurors the New Jersey Democrat tried to hide the gifts given to him by Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen. They say the gifts were part of a bribery agreement in which Menendez used his political influence to help Melgen in two business disputes and with visas for reputed foreign girlfriends.

On Wednesday, prosecutors also showed jurors a clip of a CNN interview Menendez gave in 2013 and a press release from Menendez’s office.

In both, Menendez acknowledged he took a few flights on the plane of Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen. Prosecutors have introduced evidence that he took more flights on Melgen’s plane or, when the doctor’s plane wasn’t available, flights on another private jet paid for by Melgen.

Menendez and Melgen have said in court filings — and Menendez has said publicly — that there was no bribery agreement and that the flights and other gifts were expressions of the two men’s longtime friendship.

During cross-examination near the end of the day, an attorney representing Menendez sought to bolster that argument by using copies of Menendez’s passport to show he made numerous trips to the Dominican Republic — before and during the time covered in the indictment — to visit Melgen at his own expense.