Sen. Robert Menendez is accused of dolling out political favors for Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, a close friend, in exchange for lavish vacations, private jet flights and campaign cash. | Getty Menendez pleads with judge to recess corruption trial for major Senate votes

With numerous high-stakes votes approaching in Congress, lawyers for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) are pleading with a federal judge to recess the Democrat’s impending corruption trial on days he is needed in Washington.

The lawyers, who were unable to convince U.S. District Court Judge William H. Walls of their arguments during a hearing in New Jersey earlier this week, say in a new motion that the senator’s absence from the Capitol could imperil votes to raise the debt ceiling and to avoid a government shutdown.


The situation is creating a “clash of values,” the senator’s lawyers say, that could force Menendez to make an unfair choice: Set aside his right to confront his accusers so he can make it to Washington for big votes, or shirk his constitutional obligations to the people who elected him so he can sit through the full trial.

“Senator Menendez, like any criminal defendant whose individual liberty is at stake, has a clear and unqualified interest in being present at his own trial,” attorneys Abbe Lowell and Raymond M. Brown wrote in their motion, filed Thursday evening.

“However,” the lawyers wrote, “a trial taking place during a session of Congress risks involuntarily denying Senator Menendez his rights to due process and confrontation, unless he elects to forego his constitutional duty to cast his vote on critical issues pending before Congress so that he can be present in the courtroom.”

Menendez, New Jersey's senior senator, is accused of dolling out political favors for Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, a close friend, in exchange for lavish vacations, private jet flights and campaign cash.

The trial, set to begin on Sept. 6 in Newark, could last for months and also butt up against a vote on the National Flood Insurance Program, which covers 200,000 New Jersey policyholders and is a top issue for Menendez.

It also comes as the Trump administration and Republican leaders hope to move forward with a rewrite of the nation’s tax code and push through a landmark infrastructure program.

The failed attempt by the GOP to replace the Affordable Care Act shows why a single vote can matter, the motion argues.

“The Senate is divided by razor-thin margins on consequential legislation, making Senator Menendez’s absence from any particular vote potentially determinative,” Lowell and Brown wrote.

The issue was raised in the White House press briefing earlier Thursday, with a reporter asking press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether the senator’s trial could be a factor in calling another vote on a repeal of Obamacare.

“I know there’s still ongoing judicial process taking place, so I’m not going to get into that,” Huckabee Sanders said. “But I can tell you that the president continues to be committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare and making sure that America has good health care and the health care that they deserve.”

Menendez’s lawyers made similar arguments on Tuesday, just before jury selection began, and had their points quickly dismissed by the judge. Walls said he wouldn’t even consider explaining to jurors why Menendez wasn’t in the courtroom if he decided to travel to Washington for a vote.

Walls, who is 84 years old and known for handing out tough sentences in corruption cases, said he considered Menendez to be in the same position as any other defendant. He said he saw no reason to alter the trial schedule or give jurors instructions about why the senator may need to be absent.

“I'll put it in street terms: I ain't permitting that,” Walls told Brown. “All right? If he absents himself, he is no better and no worse than any other defendant. He has a right to be absent, and that's it.”

Federal prosecutors also argued against the request in a filing on Friday morning, saying the senator was seeking special treatment from the court that would not be afforded another defendant.

“A bedrock principle of our criminal justice system is that the law does not recognize wealth or title,” the lead prosecutor, Peter Koski, wrote for the Department of Justice. “Many defendants try to evade their criminal trials—but only a United States Senator can try to hide behind the very office he corrupted to avoid accountability to the public for his actions.”

Menendez, who is facing bribery and fraud charges, is alleged to have met with then-Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius to argue that the federal government was being unfair to Melgen, who was involved in a multi-million-dollar billing dispute with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The 63-year-old senator, who once chaired the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is also accused of urging federal officials to pressure the Dominican Republic to honor a port security contract that would have benefited a company Melgen owned, and that he interceded with officials to get visas for then-married Melgen's foreign girlfriends.

Menendez denies any wrongdoing, and his attorneys are expected to argue he did favors for a friend, acting outside his official capacity.

Read the motion here.