Judge rejects Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez's request to delay his May bribery trial for two months

NEW YORK — The New York federal judge scheduled to preside over the bribery trial of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez on Thursday rejected a defense request to delay the start of jury selection from May to July.

Judge Sidney H. Stein's order sets a May 5 trial date in Manhattan for the New Jersey Democrat, who is on trial along with his wife and three New Jersey businessmen.

All have pleaded not guilty to charges that they were involved in a bribery plot that enriched the senator and his wife with cash, gold bars and a luxury car. Menendez, his wife and one of the businessmen have also pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to illegally use the senator as an agent of the Egyptian government.

Lawyers for Menendez argued earlier this month that they need additional time to prepare for trial, in part because they have been given more than 6.7 million documents to sift through and because the complexity of the case requires resolving legal questions that require extra time. time to decide.

Prosecutors opposed the request on the grounds that they warned defense attorneys when the trial date was set in the fall that the evidence they would turn over would be extensive and that nothing has changed since then.

In his order, Stein agreed with prosecutors, saying the evidence turned over by prosecutors to defense attorneys was consistent with the amount of material the government said would be involved in the trial.

After his arrest in September, the senator gave up his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has resisted calls to resign from his Senate seat.

Menendez's attorneys declined to comment on Stein's order in an email Thursday.