The trial of Sen. Bob Menendez: What you need to know

The charges

Sen. Bob Menendez, a 63-year-old Democrat from Paramus, and Dr. Salomon Melgen, a 63-year-old ophthalmologist from North Palm Beach, Florida, were indicted in April 2015. The government alleges Melgen provided a stream of benefits over several years — including flights on his private jet to Caribbean vacations and more than $700,000 in political contributions when Menendez was seeking re-election in 2012 — to get Menendez to use his office to promote Melgen's personal and business interests with a United States ambassador, fellow senators, a member of the president's cabinet, and other federal officials.

Specifically, Menendez is accused of taking bribes to:

• influence immigration visas so Melgen girlfriends from Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Ukraine could visit him in Florida;
• pressure the State Department to convince the Dominican government to honor a Melgen-owned company's exclusive contract to screen outbound cargo containers; 
• stop the Homeland Security Department from donating cargo-screening equipment to the Dominican government; and
• influence Medicare officials in a $9 million billing dispute over Melgen being reimbursed for administering multiple doses of an expensive eye drug drawn from what were supposed to be single-dose vials.

Menendez faces six counts of bribery, three counts of honest services fraud, one count of conspiracy, one count of interstate travel to carry out bribery, and one count of making false statements on his congressional financial disclosures to conceal the crimes. Melgen faces the same charges, except for the false statements accusation.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

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The defense

Menendez has said repeatedly he did nothing illegal and will be exonerated. He and Melgen also filed a series of unsuccessful motions trying to have the charges thrown out that telegraph arguments they will make in court. Here are some:

• What the government calls luxury travel provided as bribes were actually two longtime friends  vacationing together;
• It was an oversight and not concealment to leave the trips off of financial disclosure forms, but the trips could have qualified for an exclusion in Senate rules for travel with friends if Menendez had sought advance permission;
• Menendez was not trying to get Medicare officials to be lenient on Melgen's Medicare billing issue, he was questioning whether an unclear regulation was being applied fairly, and if the government was paying pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms for medication that was being wasted;
• The people with the power to issue visas, apply pressure on the cargo contract, stop the scanner donation or set Medicare policy were not under Menendez's control, so his efforts to lobby them do not meet a recent Supreme Court definition for official acts that prosecutors must prove to sustain a bribery charge;
• Nearly all of the political contributions went to committees Menendez did not control, and the Supreme Court has said contributions to independent committees such as super PACs are an exercise of free speech and do not corrupt elected officials;
• The stream of benefits theory is barred by the same court ruling and prosecutors must show evidence that a specific payment was tied to a specific action, something that pre-trial evidence did not show.

The alleged bribes

• August 2010 flights: Menendez flew in Melgen's jet from Washington to the Dominican Republic for a vacation at Melgen's villa in Casa De Campo, then back to Teterboro Airport three days later. Menendez reimbursed Melgen, at charter rates, in January 2013, after an investigation was launched. (Bribery counts 3 and 4)
• September 2010 flights and hotel: Menendez and a guest flew in Melgen's jet to the Dominican Republic to attend a wedding in Punta Cana with Melgen and his wife. After staying in a hotel, for which Melgen paid $770, Menendez and guest flew back to Teterboro three days later.  Menendez reimbursed Melgen for the cost of the flights in January 2013. (Bribery counts 5 and 6, and Honest services fraud count 15)
• October 2010 flights: Melgen bought an $890 first-class ticket for Menendez to fly from Newark to Florida, then paid $8,037 two days later for Menendez take a charter flight back to the Washington, D.C. area. (Bribery counts 7 and 8 and Honest services fraud count 16)
• May 2012 contributions: After an email request from Menendez's chief of staff, Melgen and his family gave $60,000, of which $20,000 went to the Fund to Uphold the Constitution, a legal expense fund Menendez created to battle a recall effort; and $40,000 to the New Jersey Democratic State Committee (Bribery counts 9 and 10)
• June 2012 contributions: Melgen's clinic, Vitreo-Retinal Consultants, gave $300,000 earmarked for New Jersey to Majority PAC, a national super PAC working to keep Democrats in the Senate majority. (Bribery counts 11 and 12)
• September-October 2012 contributions: $403,500 donated by VRC between Sept. 30 and Oct. 12 included $103,500 combined to county Democratic organizations of Camden, Essex, Passaic and Union counties and $300,000 to Majority PAC. (Bribery counts 13 and 14; Honest services fraud count 17)

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Other things of value

A section of the indictment intended to show the long-running conspiracy includes other gifts and trips that are not cited as specific bribes, possibly because of the statute of limitations, but some are part of other charges.

• Flights in 2006, 2008 and May 2010: Trips by Menendez, sometimes with a guest, between New Jersey or Florida and the Dominican Republic on Melgen's plane (Part of Count 18, False statements on financial disclosure)
• October 2008 car: Melgen paid for a car service to take Menendez from Hoboken around New York City at a cost of $875
• April 2010 Paris trip: Melgen used American Express points so Menendez could stay three nights in the suite of a five-star Paris hotel, a $4,934 value, where a woman with whom he had a personal relationship was also staying. (Count 2, Travel Act violation)
• January 2013: Menendez, Melgen and Melgen's assistant/son-in-law played the private Banyan Golf Club in Florida and Melgen paid the greens fees, while his assistant paid $357 for a meal at a steak house.