Menendez indictment alleges wife’s damaged car fueled bribery
- Menedez's wife killed a pedestrian while driving in 2018
- No charges were filed against Nadine Menendez, found "not at fault"
- Legal analyst: Failure to investigate does appear to be potential cover-up
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(NewsNation) — New reports have surfaced in the corruption case against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, alleging a cover-up of an accident where his wife Nadine Menendez hit and killed a man with her car back in 2018.
Nadine Menendez was found “not at fault” for the incident because the man who was killed, Richard Koop, was found to be jaywalking at the time of the incident.
But it’s what happened in the hours and days after the accident that now have some taking a closer look.
Police from the small borough of Bogota, New Jersey — just outside New York City — can be seen questioning Nadine Menendez, who at the time of the accident was still only dating the senator and went by Nadine Arslanian.
The accident was backed up by police reports and a dashcam video of officers questioning Nadine Arslanian.
In the video, she is heard explaining the events of the accident, claiming the man jumped onto her car’s windshield while she was driving.
The Mercedes she had been driving was severely damaged in the crash, and Koop was reportedly killed on impact.
Nadine Menendez was not taken into custody or tested for drugs and alcohol. She was let go after some questioning by the responding officers.
No charges were filed.
“The failure to investigate Mrs. Menendez in this automobile accident does appear to be a potential cover-up. There was never a legitimate investigation of this car accident involving Menendez and I believe we need an outside investigation to find out why the police department did not follow proper protocol,” legal analyst Brain Claypool said.
The accident revelations fill in a missing piece in the criminal indictment filed against Menendez, his wife and three co-defendants.
That indictment mentions the accident and accuses one of Menendez’s co-defendants, Jose Uribe, of offering and then helping to buy a new Mercedes Benz C convertible worth more than $60,000 for Nadine Menendez in exchange for the senator’s help with an unrelated state criminal case against one of Uribe’s family members.
“I mean, that smells, that appears to be Uribe buying out Sen. Menendez to have a prosecutor then go easy on a relative of his and that is arguably a crime,” Claypool said.
Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty in the corruption case against them involving trading favors for cash and gold bars. Their trial is set for May 6, 2024.
