A Bad Day In New Jersey For Menendez

Last week, the prosecution rested in the corruption trial of NJ Democrat senator Bob Menendez.  As usual, the defense moved at that point to dismiss the various charges against the senator.  This morning, the trial judge ruled on that motion; Menendez lost across the board.  Every charge in the indictment will stay in the case.  That means that at the close of the evidence, every charge will almost certainly go to the jury for a decision.  Simply put, things could not have gone worse for senator Menendez.

There was some talk recently that Menendez might be skipping court to go to DC to vote on important matters.  With today's ruling, that seems much less likely to happen.  Menendez has his entire future on the line here.  He could stay a senator or he could be incarcerated in a federal prison or something in between.  Menendez is unlikely to risk taking off days from the trial because that would indicate to the jury that he didn't care enough to be there. 

I've seen some of the evidence presented by the government in the prosecution.  I don't know what the senator's case will be, but it certainly doesn't look good for him right now.  My prediction is that Menendez will be convicted of all or nearly all of the charges.  Of course, it is up to the jury, not me.  We will just have to wait and see.