U.S. District Court Judge William Walls refused to toss any of the 18 charges in the corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez. | Getty Judge's ruling deals blow to Menendez

Here are the highlights from Monday's proceedings in the federal corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

Menendez, a Democrat and New Jersey's senior senator, is charged with doing official favors for his friend and co-defendant, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, in exchange for expensive hotel stays, private jet flights and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.


4:00 PM

NEWARK — Five days after unexpectedly dangling a legal out for Sen. Robert Menendez by questioning a theory that is key to the prosecution's federal bribery case against the Democratic lawmaker and his co-defendant, Judge William Walls withdrew it on Monday.

Menendez’s attorneys had asked Walls to dismiss all 18 counts against New Jersey's senior senator. The judge had signaled before court broke last Wednesday that he was sympathetic to the defense’s argument that would have gutted most of those counts — the “stream of benefits” theory, in which a public official's actions can be defined as bribery if those actions can be linked to gifts received over a lengthy period.

Prosecutors say co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor, provided Menendez with private jet flights, hotel stays and about $750,000 in political contributions in exchange for official favors “as opportunities arose.”

The defense argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 decision overturning the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell invalidated the "stream of benefits" theory.

Walls didn’t agree.

After reading dozens of pages of briefings from the prosecution and defense and hearing more oral arguments, Walls was firm in siding with the prosecution. He said higher courts in recent cases have continued to rely on the stream of benefits theory.

“I see nothing in McDonnell that attacks the stream of benefits theory,” the judge said Monday. “This court concludes that a rational jury could determine that the defendants entered into a quid pro quo agreement.”

Walls also refused to toss out a charge that Menendez intentionally refused to disclose his gifts from Melgen.

“The jury will decide whose version of what happened and what didn’t happen is more likely than not,” Walls said.

With those pronouncements, the seventh week of the federal corruption trial got underway in Newark with the defense calling its first witness: the senator’s 32-year-old son.

Robert Menendez Jr. testified that his 63-year-old father was a different person when he was with Melgen.

“My dad’s a serious guy. He takes the weight of his office very seriously. It’s not that often he has opportunities to relax,” the younger Menendez testified. “When he’s with Dr. Melgen, he can be himself. He can be jovial. He can laugh and, unfortunately, sing.”

Defense attorneys sought to flesh out the relationship between Menendez and Melgen, characterizing it as the closest of friendships. Prosecutors want the jury to see it as a corrupt bargain struck between Melgen, who had millions of dollars, and Menendez, who had the power to help the doctor’s personal and business interests.

Menendez Jr. was more than a character witness. He and his father were passengers aboard Melgen’s private jet in 2006 on a flight between Florida and the doctor’s home in the Dominican Republic that prosecutors say was a bribe to the elder Menendez in exchange for official action to help the doctor.

In his testimony on Monday, Menendez Jr. got nostalgic about his father’s relationship with Melgen, whom he said he even called “tio” — the Spanish word for “uncle.” He said his father hung out with Melgen because he could unwind.

“My dad has this expression that his dad passed to him — that if you can count your number of friends on one hand, you’re an extremely lucky person,” Menendez Jr. said. “It’s something that my dad passed down to me. And I know that Dr. Melgen is one of my dad’s true friends. And I know with their level of closeness, you don’t need the other four fingers.”

Menendez Jr. also talked about volunteering for his father’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2006.

“We have a small family, so when we have the opportunity to help each other out in pursuing what our goals are, we do that. So it was important that I came back against my dad’s wishes, and I started working on the campaign that summer,” he said.

Defense attorneys showed the jury a 30-second Menendez campaign commercial from that race. In it, the senator is standing at the Elizabeth Seaport, touting his opposition to allowing a company based in Dubai to manage the facility.

Prosecutors tried to stop the defense from showing the ad to the jury. But defense attorneys convinced Walls it was relevant.

One of the charges against Menendez and Melgen is that the senator pressured U.S. officials to put pressure on counterparts in the Dominican Republic to honor a port security contract for a company owned by Melgen. Menendez argues those contacts were borne out of his genuine concern for port security.

“It was only five years after 9/11 that we were running this race, so issues of national security, there were two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also port security was a major issue,” Menendez Jr. testified.

Prosecutors attempted to catch Menendez Jr. contradicting his grand jury testimony. The younger Menendez testified Monday that his family first visited Melgen in the Dominican Republic in 1999, when he was 14 and well before his father and Melgen are alleged to have started their conspiracy.

Menendez Jr. said spending time with Melgen and his family was a “major” reason for that trip.

But prosecutors sought to paint that trip as revolving little around Melgen, and they brought up Menendez Jr.’s grand jury testimony from three years ago, when he said meeting Melgen was a “small” part of the trip.

“When you testified in front of the grand jury, you took an oath. Isn’t that right?” prosecutor Amanda Vaughn asked.

“That’s correct,” Menendez Jr. said.

“To tell the truth. You remember that?”

“That’s correct,” Menendez Jr. replied.

Vaughn also got Menendez Jr. to acknowledge that he had met Melgen only six times and that he and his father never flew on the doctor’s private jet until his father was a senator.

Attorneys for Melgen later called Melgen’s wife, Flor Melgen.

Much of her testimony was devoted to playing down the luxury at Casa de Campo, the Dominican resort at which she and her husband owned a villa and Menendez often visited.

Flor Melgen said she had never even seen its marina, and that when Menendez visited he never made use of its luxury amenities like the spa or polo court.

“They’re like brothers. There’s a very strong relationship between them,” she said.

Melgen’s attorney, Kirk Ogrosky, asked Flor Melgen whether she had “a relationship with Robert Menendez that is independent of your husband?”

“I am married and I am loyal to my husband,” she said.

Laughter broke out in the courtroom.

“I’m going to ask to strike that last question,” Ogrosky said.

No mention was made Monday of the fact that prosecutors charge that among the favors Menendez did for Melgen was securing U.S. tourist visas for three of the doctor’s 20-something foreign girlfriends.

The trial resumes Tuesday morning.

12:10 PM

NEWARK — After raising Sen. Robert Menendez’s hopes last week, a federal judge crushed them on Monday morning.

U.S. District Court Judge William Walls refused to toss any of the 18 charges in the corruption case against Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, despite last week casting doubt on a legal theory that’s at the heart of the prosecution’s case.

Walls last week cast doubt on the “stream of benefits” theory — in which a public official's actions can be defined as bribery if those actions can be linked to gifts received over a lengthy period of time. Much of the prosecution’s case against Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen relies on the theory. Melgen, prosecutors argue, gave Menendez private jet flights, hotel stays and about $750,000 in political contributions in exchange for official favors “as opportunities arose.”

The defense had argued that the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision overturning the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell invalidated the theory, even though the Supreme Court didn’t explicitly say so.

Walls didn’t agree.

“I see nothing in McDonnell that attacks the stream of benefits theory,” Walls said.

The judge had been more sympathetic to the defense’s argument when the trial broke last Wednesday, saying “I frankly don’t think that McDonnell will allow that.”

But after reading dozens of pages of briefings from the prosecution and defense and hearing more oral arguments, Walls was firm in siding with the prosecution. He said higher courts in recent cases have continued to rely on the stream of benefits theory.

“This court concludes that a rational jury could determine that the defendants entered into a quid pro quo agreement,” Walls said.

Walls also refused to toss out a charge that Menendez intentionally refused to disclose his gifts from Melgen.

“The jury will decide whose version of what happened and what didn’t happen is more likely than not,” Walls said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of Judge William Walls.