file photo by Boyd Loving
January 20,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Newark NJ, the U.S. Department of Justice says that it intends to retry Sen. Robert Menendez’s bribery case, which previously ended with a hung jury.
In a letter the DOJ wrote to the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, “The United States files this notice of intent to retry the defendants [Menendez and Dr. Salomon Melgen] and requests that the court set the case for retrial at the earliest possible date.”
Both Menendez and Melgen, a longtime friend of the senator, were on trial last year after being accused of running a bribery scheme between 2006 and 2013 in which Menendez allegedly lobbied government officials on Melgen’s behalf in exchange for luxury vacations and flights on Melgen’s private plane.
Menendez also was charged with making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.
At that time jurors were unable to come to a unanimous verdict after about a week of deliberations.The judge then declared a mistrial.
Both men have denied any wrongdoing.
