влада, вибори, народ

Jury chosen for US Senator Menendez’s corruption trial

NEW YORK — A jury was chosen on Wednesday to determine whether U.S. Senator Robert Menendez broke the law in what federal prosecutors have called a yearslong bribery scheme to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar, as well as himself. 

Opening statements in the trial of New Jersey’s senior senator are expected to begin later in the day before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan. The trial could last into early July. 

Twelve jurors and six alternates were chosen, including an investment banker, a commercial litigator, a retired economist, a doctor and multiple therapists. Jury selection took about 2½, and more than 130 prospective jurors were excused. 

Menendez, 70, faces 16 criminal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction. 

He is being tried alongside New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. The senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, is scheduled to be tried on July 8, with the delay resulting from what her lawyers called a serious medical condition. 

All the defendants have pleaded not guilty. The bribery trial is the senator’s second. His first ended in 2017 in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked. 

Prosecutors are expected to detail what they consider a complex and sordid array of corruption that lasted from 2018 to 2023. 

The Menendezes are accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Hana, Daibes and insurance broker Jose Uribe, in exchange for the senator’s providing political favors and aid to Egypt and Qatar.  

Prosecutors have said the senator promised to help Egypt obtain arms sales and other aid, helped Hana obtain a lucrative monopoly on certifying that meat exports to Egypt conformed to Islamic law, and tried to help Daibes secure millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund. 

Menendez, a Democrat, also was accused of trying to interfere in a federal criminal case against Daibes in New Jersey and in state criminal cases involving two of Uribe’s associates. 

Prosecutors have said FBI agents found more than $480,000 of cash in the Menendezes’ home, much stashed in clothing, closets and a safe. 

Bribes also included more than $100,000 in gold bars and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible, according to prosecutors. 

Uribe pleaded guilty in March to bribery and fraud, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. 

While Nadine Menendez is not yet on trial, her husband’s lawyers have suggested his defense might include an effort to blame her for withholding information and making him believe his activities were lawful. 

Robert Menendez became a senator in 2006. Before being indicted, he would have been favored in his Democratic-leaning state to win a fourth full Senate term in November. 

But any reelection bid now would be a long shot, reflecting recent polls of voters that show overwhelming disapproval of Menendez’s job performance. 

Menendez has suggested that he would try if acquitted to run as an independent. Only 9% of voters polled in March by Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill said they would prefer him to another Democrat or a Republican. 

The senator has resisted calls to resign made from across the political spectrum but gave up leadership of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his indictment last September. 

Stein admonished jurors to ignore media coverage of the trial. “If something comes up,” the judge said, “switch off.” 

your ad here
By Polityk | 05/16/2024 | Повідомлення, Політика

Kennedy regarded as potential spoiler in US presidential election

white house — There are few things the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden agree on. One is the presidential candidacy of activist-lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both the Biden and Trump camps see Kennedy as a potential spoiler in this November’s election.

About half of registered voters have told pollsters that if given the chance, they would replace both Biden and Trump on this year’s ballot.

“If you picture what this country is going to look like in November if either President Trump or President Biden won, the division is going to continue,” Kennedy said at a California campaign event to introduce his running mate, 38-year-old attorney and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan. “The anger, the vitriol, the chaos, the polarization is going to worsen. The only way to end that is through my successful candidacy.”

Neither Kennedy nor Shanahan has ever held elective office.

Kennedy’s father was Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and a senator, and a major contender in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primary until he was assassinated. His uncle was President John F. Kennedy, slain while in office in 1963.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not going to be the next president,” predicts Georgetown University Associate Professor Hans Noel, echoing the consensus of his fellow political scientists.

What worries the Biden and Trump campaigns is the possibility of Kennedy on the ballot in the half-dozen or so swing states where his mere thousands of votes could “change the outcome of that state. Then of course, that tips the direction of that state — if that state is large enough — and the ultimate election is fairly close, which is what we expect. Then, it could change the outcome of the race,” Noel tells VOA.

During a recent appearance on MSNBC, Kennedy declared “I’m going to be on the ballot in every state. I’ll be on the ballot in every state by July.”

Kennedy’s team declined VOA’s request to make the candidate or a surrogate available to respond to questions, saying “the campaign has decided to only grant interviews to U.S press with targeted U.S. audiences at this time.”

The Kennedy clan “is not happy at all that he’s running, and they’ve made a number of efforts to make that very clear,” notes Noel.

Biden, during a recent campaign appearance in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, was surrounded by Kennedy family members, including the independent candidate’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, who said “We want to make crystal clear our feeling that the best way forward for America is to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to four more years.”

Candidate Kennedy’s beliefs about vaccines, the origins of COVD-19, and the assassinations of his father and uncle have attracted some supporters, including those who said they previously voted for Trump or Biden.

In recent weeks, Kennedy attracted the most media attention not for his positions on any political issue but for a revelation from a 2012 deposition for a divorce. In it, he said cognitive issues that had harmed his earning potential could have been “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

In a social media post after the brain worm wriggled into the headlines across the country, Kennedy quipped, “I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.”

Political pundits are split on whether Kennedy poses more of a threat to Trump or Biden.

“Kennedy is much more popular among Republicans than he is among Democrats right now. But that’s probably mostly because he’s a Democrat or former Democrat who says bad things about other Democrats,” said Noel. “And, so, Republicans like to hear that, and they think that sounds interesting. But they’re not going to vote for that over Donald Trump.”

The Republican National Committee, attempting to dissuade conservatives who oppose abortion from considering Kennedy as an alternative to Trump, stated, “There is exactly zero daylight between the abortion extremism of RFK Jr. and Crooked Joe Biden.”

The Democratic National Committee filed a complaint against Kennedy in February with the Federal Election Commission alleging a political action committee was illegally coordinating with the independent candidate’s campaign to get him on additional state ballots.

Biden’s party also portrays Kennedy as a “spoiler for Donald Trump,” according to Matt Corridoni, a DNC spokesperson.

“RFK Jr.’s campaign isn’t building a plan or a strategy to get 270 electoral votes. They’re building one to help Trump return to the Oval Office,” he says.

The New York Times calls Kennedy the “X factor” in this year’s presidential election, noting that the latest public opinion survey, organized by the newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College, shows him polling stronger than any third-party candidate in decades. The poll has Kennedy being supported by about 10% of registered voters in the battleground states, drawing equally from both Biden and Trump.

your ad here
By Polityk | 05/15/2024 | Повідомлення, Політика

A Kennedy for president viewed as a potential spoiler

There is little that the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden agree on. One is the presidential candidacy of an activist lawyer with a famous political pedigree: Robert F. Kennedy, Junior. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman at the White House reports both the Biden and Trump camps see Kennedy as a potential spoiler in this November’s election. Camera and edit: Adam Greenbaum

your ad here
By Polityk | 05/15/2024 | Повідомлення, Політика
попередні наступні