With jurors in the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez clearly having trouble reaching agreement, the presiding judge sent them home early yesterday.

The defense called for a hung jury and pushed again for a mistrial, but Judge William Walls indicated he was not interested in cutting jury deliberations short. He also brushed off the prosecution’s argument that he should allow for partial verdicts, hung on some counts, guilty on others.

Outside the courthouse, Menendez told reporters that he continues to stand up for New Jersey. “It is that same sense of standing up that I appreciate the jurors, who have been standing up for my innocence during the course of the jury deliberations, standing up for me as I have stood up for New Jerseyans,” Menendez said.

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