Lawyers for former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) are questioning the government’s conduct after federal prosecutors admitted last week that jurors were accidentally shown improper evidence while deliberating in his corruption case.
In a pointed letter to U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein, Menendez’s lawyers called it “deeply troubling” that nine exhibits shown to jurors during deliberations displayed material that should have been redacted, after prosecutors inadvertently uploaded the laptop they used to view evidence with alternative versions.
Prosecutors flagged the issue to the court last week but said the mistake should not imperil Menendez’s conviction nor require any action.
“The government’s effort to downplay its recent discovery raises more questions about the government’s conduct than it answers,” Menendez attorney Adam Fee said.
Fee told the judge that defense attorneys were not informed of the issue until last Wednesday, when prosecutors sent their letter to the judge, despite the government’s awareness of the issue beginning roughly two weeks prior.
Menendez’s counsel also claimed that prosecutors have still not conducted a “quality control check” of the thousands of exhibits assembled for jurors and failed to preserve the exhibits as they were provided to the jury, instead erasing the laptop on which the exhibits were loaded.
“Defendants will need to submit briefing on the consequences of this deletion, including whether it constitutes spoliation or other improper conduct,” Fee wrote.
When informing Stein of the error, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni said neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers noticed the mistake and that the unredacted content likely did not impact the jurors’ verdict. The prosecutor called it “inappropriate” to conduct a new trial over the error, given it was “extraordinarily unlikely” jurors even “became aware” of the incorrect exhibit versions while deliberating.
Menendez resigned from the Senate in August after he was convicted on all 16 counts he faced, from accepting luxurious bribes in exchange for his political clout to acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. He has maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal, and his sentencing is set for Jan. 29.
He told The Hill in a statement after the error was uncovered that prosecutors “basically admitted” to manipulating evidence shown to jurors and said it proved they “cannot be trusted.”
Menendez’s attorneys asked the judge to establish a briefing schedule to further flesh out the matter.
