Robert Menendez isn’t acting like someone about to go on trial on corruption charges.

In the days since the Obama administration unveiled its historic nuclear deal with Iran, the New Jersey senator has made clear he intends to be the same outspoken critic of the accord with Tehran as he was before he lost his top position on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee after a 14-count federal indictment. His more aggressive stance is a pronounced shift from the low profile Menendez has kept in recent months as the Iran negotiations unfolded and he prepared for a fall trial, and it has drawn the attention of fellow senators.


Asked during an interview if his legal case would detract from his opposition to the Iran agreement, Menendez said indignantly: “You’re the first member of the press to ask me that. The answer is no. Has it stopped me now? Has it stopped me at any time throughout process? Absolutely not.”

And when Tony Blinken, a senior State Department official, asked Menendez in a Tuesday telephone call how he could help the senator better understand the deal, Menendez responded: “Asking me that question doesn’t help me understand the deal.”

Of course, Menendez will be attacking the Iran agreement as a much-diminished, rank-and-file Democrat under a legal cloud. Some of his Capitol Hill allies continue to believe the Justice Department targeted him to neutralize a vocal Democratic foe of the Iran talks. And he’s continuing to receive strong financial backing from pro-Israel allies off the Hill like billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

“Bob has been perfect on this issue,” said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who, like Menendez, is a pro-Israel hawk. “I worry that they may have gone after him just to take out an opponent of the agreement.”

Menendez wouldn’t go there.

“Listen, you know — I’m focused on stopping Iran from [developing] a nuclear weapon,” Menendez told POLITICO.

Though he’s officially undecided, Menendez has already taken several shots at top administration officials as they launch their campaign to sway Capitol Hill on the deal. When Vice President Joe Biden briefed Democrats on Thursday, Menendez challenged Biden, himself a former Foreign Relations Committee chairman, on the president’s decision to take the deal to the United Nations before Congress has a chance to vote on it. After President Barack Obama vowed that the agreement would curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Menendez blasted out a statement arguing “the deal doesn’t end Iran’s nuclear program — it preserves it.”

Menendez was also noticeably absent when Obama tried to soothe Democratic nerves on Iran at a social gathering at the White House earlier this month. Instead, the senator arranged for his own briefings with Iran policy experts, he said.

He also questioned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s judgment in announcing her support for the plan within hours of its release.

“I think it’s selling short an incredibly important process,” Menendez said in an interview.

It’s not out of character for the hard-charging Menendez to project defiance in the face of long odds. Yet the uptick in his involvement came after he was mostly sidelined from the Iran debate in the wake of his April indictment.

Menendez agreed to step down as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vacating a perch that carries with it heavy influence within his caucus. He ceded the role — and some staff — to Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a close Obama ally who then took the lead Democratic role in drafting the bipartisan law that now gives Congress 60 days to review the Iran deal. Menendez was largely mum during closed-door meetings, a sharp departure from a January meeting at which he sparred with Obama over Iran during a Democratic retreat in Baltimore.

“He was very quiet for a while,” said one fellow Democratic Senate source.

The New Jersey senator’s vote will be important: In order to keep the deal alive, the White House can lose only 12 Democratic senators when Congress votes on the agreement in September, just weeks before Menendez’s trial.

Menendez and his attorneys have been actively preparing for a protracted battle against bribery allegations and other corruption charges that stem from his long relationship with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist.

The senator is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and campaign contributions in exchange for taking official action on Melgan’s behalf, including with a Medicare billing dispute and a port security contract in the Dominican Republic.

The lawmaker is expected to file a series of legal motions Monday challenging the government’s case against him. The trial is expected to begin in October, but sources following the case expect subsequent delays will push back the trial even further.

Menendez, who has pleaded not guilty, maintains his looming corruption trial hasn’t distracted him from his day job. But he has embarked on an aggressive effort behind the scenes to raise money to cover his legal fees. Filings with Senate officials show Menendez raised $1.5 million this spring.

His backers include pro-Israel hawks and political heavyweights like Adelson, New Jersey power broker George Norcross and New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman, whose editorial page advised lawmakers that “Obama’s reckless deal with the devils must be consigned to hell.”

Supporters say the Iran deal will allow detection of any effort by Tehran to create a nuclear bomb, snap back sanctions if Iran cheats and implement oversight measures that will bring new degrees of transparency to its government. But Menendez argues instead that the agreement “legitimizes Iran as a nuclear threshold state” and doesn’t contain enough implicit threats from the president of the dire consequences Iranian leadership would face if it violates the terms of the deal.

“Maybe this is the best bad deal that can be achieved. But the best bad deal still has an underlying principle to it: It’s a bad deal,” Menendez said in one of several interviews over the past month.

As vocal as Menendez is, it’s also apparent his influence has diminished simply by the nature of the Senate’s committee hierarchy.

“We haven’t seen any limitations on his part,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), before pausing to correct himself. “Of course, we have the obvious: He stepped down as ranking member.”

The White House is still trying to court Menendez despite his tough talk. Blinken called him within hours of the final deal’s announcement, though during that call Menendez noted that he got the text of the deal from “a Russian news agency” — not the administration — and he was still studying it.

That same day Clinton met with House and Senate Democrats and fielded questions about the Iran deal. At a party lunch, Menendez didn’t challenge Clinton on the topic, he said, but he did find it surprising that anyone could take a position on the deal without having fully vetted it.

“Listen, I think it’s premature to be against the deal,” Menendez said. “I also think it’s premature to be for the deal unless you reviewed it in depth. … I don’t know in the most important national-security, nuclear-nonproliferation agreement that we will have in some time how you come to a conclusion before you have have an in-depth analysis of what the deal is.”