Potential hurdles await prosecutors in Menendez case

US senator indicted for bribery

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal indictment against New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez turns in part on prosecutors' ability to show the lavish gifts and political favors at the center of the case amount to outright bribery rather than reflections of a decades-long friendship between the lawmaker and the donor.

That burden of proof is among the issues that make public corruption cases more complicated for the government than they would appear from a one-sided indictment.

"It relies very heavily on quid pro quo - giving this official action for that thing of value. It's not a fuzzy relationship, it's not an iffy relationship," said Robert Walker, a former Justice Department corruption prosecutor who also served as chief counsel for the House and Senate ethics committees. "It can be difficult to prove quid pro quo."

A second potential hurdle for prosecutors is a protection the Constitution gives members of Congress for their legislative acts.

An indictment issued Wednesday in Newark charges Menendez with accepting a series of gifts, including round-trip flights aboard a luxury jet and a Paris vacation, from Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye doctor, political donor and friend of more than two decades. Prosecutors accuse Menendez, in exchange for gifts and campaign contributions, of acting to advance Melgen's business interests, including intervening in a Medicare billing dispute worth millions of dollars.

Menendez pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday to charges including bribery, conspiracy and making false statements. Melgen also pleaded not guilty.

The New Jersey Democrat had earlier defiantly asserted his innocence in a public appearance hours after the indictment, predicted he would be vindicated and said Justice Department prosecutors "don't know the difference between friendship and corruption."

Menendez lawyer Abbe Lowell picked up on that theme following Thursday's arraignment. "Prosecutors at the Justice Department often get it wrong," Lowell told reporters. "These charges are the latest instance of that."

As the case moves forward, both sides are likely to present dramatically different portraits of the relationship between Melgen and Menendez.

In the government's telling, the gifts were given with the corrupt intent to spur specific acts on Melgen's behalf. But defense lawyers are likely to cast the gifts as tokens exchanged between men who've shared a close bond for 20 years. What prosecutors call unlawful favors will invariably be characterized by Menendez's defense as actions that fall within a senator's ordinary responsibilities and duties - and done for the right reasons.

"Because this was a real friendship and not a corrupt relationship - and because Senator Menendez's actions were proper - this case too will become another of those mistaken cases that should have never been brought," Lowell said.