Legal professionals for former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) are questioning the federal government’s conduct after federal prosecutors admitted final week that jurors had been by accident proven improper proof whereas deliberating in his corruption case.
In a pointed letter to U.S. District Choose Sidney Stein, Menendez’s attorneys known as it “deeply troubling” that 9 reveals proven to jurors throughout deliberations displayed materials that ought to have been redacted, after prosecutors inadvertently uploaded the laptop computer they used to view proof with various variations.
Prosecutors flagged the difficulty to the court docket final week however mentioned the error shouldn’t imperil Menendez’s conviction nor require any motion.
“The government’s effort to downplay its recent discovery raises more questions about the government’s conduct than it answers,” Menendez legal professional Adam Price mentioned.
Price advised the choose that protection attorneys weren’t knowledgeable of the difficulty till final Wednesday, when prosecutors despatched their letter to the choose, regardless of the federal government’s consciousness of the difficulty starting roughly two weeks prior.
Menendez’s counsel additionally claimed that prosecutors have nonetheless not performed a “quality control check” of the 1000’s of reveals assembled for jurors and did not protect the reveals as they had been offered to the jury, as a substitute erasing the laptop computer on which the reveals had been loaded.
“Defendants will need to submit briefing on the consequences of this deletion, including whether it constitutes spoliation or other improper conduct,” Price wrote.
When informing Stein of the error, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Paul Monteleoni mentioned neither prosecutors nor protection attorneys seen the error and that the unredacted content material probably didn’t influence the jurors’ verdict. The prosecutor known as it “inappropriate” to conduct a brand new trial over the error, given it was “extraordinarily unlikely” jurors even “became aware” of the wrong exhibit variations whereas deliberating.
Menendez resigned from the Senate in August after he was convicted on all 16 counts he confronted, from accepting luxurious bribes in change for his political clout to appearing as a overseas agent of Egypt. He has maintained his innocence and vowed to enchantment, and his sentencing is about for Jan. 29.
He advised The Hill in a press release after the error was uncovered that prosecutors “basically admitted” to manipulating proof proven to jurors and mentioned it proved they “cannot be trusted.”
Menendez’s attorneys requested the choose to determine a briefing schedule to additional flesh out the matter.
