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After Jose Uribe, a New Jersey businessman, was subpoenaed in reference to a broad bribery investigation involving Senator Robert Menendez, he received a message from the senator’s spouse, Nadine Menendez.
She wished to get their tales straight a few Mercedes-Benz convertible he had given her as a bribe, he admitted Friday in federal courtroom in Manhattan. They met a couple of hours later at a Marriott Resort.
“She requested what was I going to say if anyone requested me concerning the automobile funds,” he mentioned.
He agreed to deceive investigators — and to his personal lawyer, he mentioned.
“Nadine says one thing like, ‘That sounds good,’” he advised the decide, Sidney H. Stein of Federal District Court docket, in keeping with a transcript of the continuing.
Mr. Uribe, 56, then pleaded responsible to seven counts, together with conspiracy to commit bribery, sincere providers wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
He additionally agreed to cooperate totally with prosecutors of their investigation, in keeping with a proper plea settlement signed by Mr. Uribe, his lawyer and prosecutors within the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Uribe was considered one of three businessmen charged in what prosecutors say was an enormous, yearslong bribery scheme involving Mr. Menendez and his spouse. The couple is accused of accepting the automobile, bars of gold bullion and tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in alternate for the senator’s willingness to supply political favors and to assist the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, his spouse and the 2 different businessmen have pleaded not responsible and are dealing with trial in Could.
Ms. Menendez’s legal professionals had no remark about Mr. Uribe’s admissions.
Mr. Menendez’s lawyer, Adam Charge, mentioned Mr. Uribe’s choice to plead responsible “doesn’t change the core fact: Senator Menendez is harmless and the prosecutors have gotten it flawed.”
“Senator Menendez has spent months detailing the regulation and the proof that display that prices ought to by no means have been filed on this case,” Mr. Charge mentioned, including that Mr. Menendez seemed ahead to “proving his innocence to a jury.”
Mr. Uribe, a former New Jersey insurance coverage dealer, was charged in three successive indictments with offering Ms. Menendez with the Mercedes in alternate for Mr. Menendez’s efforts to intercede in an insurance coverage fraud investigation in New Jersey.
In courtroom on Friday, Mr. Uribe admitted that he gave Ms. Menendez the luxurious automobile “in return for Senator Menendez utilizing his energy and affect as a United States senator to get a positive end result and to cease all investigations associated to considered one of my associates.”
“I knew that giving a automobile in return for influencing a United States senator to cease a prison investigation was flawed,” he mentioned, “and I deeply remorse my actions.”
Three years after giving Ms. Menendez the automobile, because the prison investigation was underway, he mentioned he received “a test from Nadine paying me again for the automobile funds.”
The automobile, in keeping with prosecutors, was one of many first bribes offered for the good thing about the senator and Ms. Menendez. The Mercedes changed a automobile that police information present Ms. Menendez was driving in December 2018 when she struck and killed a pedestrian, Richard Koop, in Bogota, N.J. Ms. Menendez, who married Mr. Menendez in 2020, was relationship the senator on the time of the crash.
She was not examined for medication or alcohol and was not charged with wrongdoing. The New Jersey lawyer basic’s workplace has mentioned it was reviewing the initial investigation, however has refused to answer questions concerning the standing of the inquiry into her crash.
Months after the crash, after acquiring the brand new automobile from Mr. Uribe, she despatched a textual content message to Mr. Menendez.
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie,” she wrote, in keeping with the indictment. “We’re the proud house owners of a 2019 Mercedes.”
The automobile, Mr. Uribe admitted, was given in alternate for Mr. Menendez’s efforts to disrupt a New Jersey insurance coverage fraud case involving two of his associates, together with an individual he mentioned he thought-about a member of his household.
“The deal is to kill and cease all investigation,” Mr. Uribe wrote in a message to a different defendant, in keeping with the indictment.
In alternate for the $60,0000 automobile, prosecutors mentioned, Mr. Menendez tried to make use of “recommendation and strain” to affect a prime official within the New Jersey lawyer basic’s workplace — throughout a cellphone name and an in-person assembly.
Mr. Menendez’s legal professionals have disputed the allegations and mentioned that data prosecutors have gathered in the course of the investigation that was favorable to the senator has been ignored. They’ve additionally argued that as a result of the senator had no authority over the state prosecutor, any makes an attempt to strain the official couldn’t — even when they occurred — be thought-about official acts, the edge wanted to show public corruption.
Choose Stein set Mr. Uribe’s sentencing for June 14, which suggests it may come in the course of the trial of Mr. Menendez and his three remaining co-defendants, which is scheduled to begin on Could 6. Mr. Uribe’s cooperation may end in a lowered sentence, in keeping with the settlement.
Mr. Uribe’s lawyer, Daniel J. Fetterman, declined to remark, as did Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Manhattan.
Attorneys for Mr. Menendez have argued that warrants allowing searches of the couple’s residence and digital units had been overbroad and granted by Justice of the Peace judges who had been misled by prosecutors.
They’ve requested Choose Stein to rule that gadgets and knowledge discovered in the course of the searches are inadmissible. Mr. Menendez’s legal professionals have additionally requested the decide to dismiss the indictment altogether, saying that overzealous prosecutors had been criminalizing regular legislative exercise and flouting constitutional protections afforded to members of Congress.
Choose Stein is anticipated to subject his choice within the coming weeks.
This isn’t the primary time that Mr. Uribe has pleaded responsible.
After being charged with insurance coverage fraud in New Jersey, he admitted in 2011 to taking nearly $77,000 in premiums from shoppers and creating the misunderstanding that he had used the funds to purchase insurance coverage for his or her business autos. He lost his license to sell insurance and was sentenced to probation.
It’s unclear whether or not the case Mr. Uribe hoped Mr. Menendez would scuttle on behalf of his associates was linked to the sooner state prosecution.
Federal prosecutors famous within the indictment in opposition to Mr. Menendez that Mr. Uribe received a name from the senator’s workplace in Washington after he sought assist in 2019.
“I’m a really completely happy individual,” Mr. Uribe wrote in a textual content message to Ms. Menendez. “GOD bless you and him for ever.”
A number of nights later, in keeping with the indictment, Mr. Uribe met the senator and Ms. Menendez for “a celebratory dinner and toasted with a bottle of champagne.”
Prosecutors included a photograph of the toast within the charging doc.
Quickly after, Mr. Uribe organized for an unnamed trucking firm to start making computerized funds for the Mercedes, prosecutors mentioned.
Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
