Former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is seeking to get his bribery conviction thrown out and receive a new trial after prosecutors revealed they inadvertently gave the jury information they shouldn't have.
Menendez's lawyers made the request before a federal court in New York after prosecutors said in a letter earlier this month that a laptop given to the jury had incorrect versions of nine exhibits. Neither the lawyers nor the prosecutors noticed the errors when inspecting the laptop at the time, the latter said.
Prosecutors argued the mistake is not enough for the former senator to get his guilty verdict thrown out, partly because "there is no reasonable likelihood any juror ever saw any of the erroneously less-redacted versions."
Menendez's lawyers, however, told U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein that the matter was a "serious breach" and a new trial was "unavoidable" because some of the material disclosed was protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, which details that lawmakers "shall not be questioned" for "any speech or debate" in any chamber of Congress.
The exhibits, they said, "exposed the jury to a theory of criminality that the government was barred from presenting under the Speech or Debate Clause — namely, that Senator Menendez made specific decisions with respect to military sales to Egypt in exchange for bribes."
Prosecutors specified that the information disclosed had the only evidence that tied Menendez to the provision of military aid to Egypt, at the center of the charges against him.
Menendez was found guilty on all 16 counts against him, including bribery and acting as a foreign agent. He stepped down from his post in August after the jury determined he had accepted cash, gold bars and other perks from New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official favors that benefited them as well as the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
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