The judge overseeing the bribery case against embattled Senator Bob Menendez determined prosecutors can't show evidence they consider "crucial" to proving their case: alleged texts from 2019 when Menendez, then the top Democrat in the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, passing on key information to Egyptian officials and New Jersey businessmen accused of bribing him in exchange for benefitting from his political influence.
U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein also prevented prosecutors from showing a text from 2022 in which Menendez's wife, Nadine, allegedly telling one of the businessmen that "Bob had to sign off on this," in reference to pending foreign military sales to Egypt.
