Judge rejects Menendez claims that search warrants were unconstitutional

A federal judge on Monday rejected Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) claims that the search warrants executed on his home were unconstitutional.

Judge Sidney H. Stein on Monday ruled that the search warrants used to investigate Menendez’s emails and search his home in 2022 were not unconstitutional, according to court filings. Menendez’s lawyers had previously argued that the evidence collected was illegally obtained and alleged that prosecutors “actively distorted” the evidence.

Attorneys for Menendez said the warrants were “riddled with material misrepresentation and omissions that deceived the authorizing magistrate judge,” according to court documents. Stein rejected this argument, ruling that Menendez failed to prove that the warrants were purposefully misleading.

Prosecutors said FBI agents discovered $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash, while executing a search of Menendez’s home. He was indicted on bribery charges last fall that accused him and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, of accepting more than $600,000 in bribes from a group of New Jersey businessmen on behalf of interests in Egypt.

Menendez is also accused of acting as a foreign agent of Egypt between June 2018 and June 2022. Earlier this year, a second superseding indictment alleged he accepted gifts for aiding a foreign government.

The New Jersey Democrat and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Stein also rejected arguments by one of the three businessmen charged in the case, Wael Hana, who had also raised a challenge to one of the search warrants.

“Menendez and Hana have failed to make a substantial preliminary showing of material misrepresentations or omissions that, based on credible evidence, are deliberately or recklessly misleading,” Stein wrote.

Stein also noted in his ruling that the affidavits that backed requests for a search warrant only needed to show probable cause.

“As the government asserts—and Menendez does not contest—the affidavit need only establish probable cause that the evidence, fruits, or instrumentalities of a crime would be found in the search, even if the crime was only perpetrated among Nadine, Hana, and the New Jersey Defendant,” Stein wrote, noting that the “threshold is amply satisfied by the documentary evidence described in the affidavit.”

Jose Uribe, one of the businessmen charged in the case, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges including conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of justice, and tax evasion, according to court filings. Hana and another businessman charged, Fred Daibes, have pleaded not guilty.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office decline to comment.

The Hill has reached out to Menendez’s legal team for comment.