For a second time, Sen. Bob Menendez faces a corruption trial. This time, it involves gold bars
For the second time in a decade, Sen. Bob Menendez is finding his political career and freedom on the line in a federal criminal case that already has forced him out of one of the Senate's most powerful posts. The New Jersey Democrat goes to trial Monday in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors say he and his wife accepted gold bars, cash and a luxury car as bribes to aid three businessmen in his home state and that the favors influenced his interactions with Egypt and Qatar. Menendez's lawyers, though, say he stayed within the rules and did nothing illegal.