NEWARK, N.J. _ A federal judge on Monday declined to declare a mistrial in the corruption case of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his co-defendant, Salomon Melgen.
Before U.S. District Court Judge William H. Walls made his ruling, Menendez, D-N.J., was humming "Amazing Grace" while strolling the hallways of the federal courthouse in Newark, just as he had reportedly done during another critical juncture in the case.
Walls said that while he has attempted throughout the trial to enforce rules about the admissibility of evidence, defense attorneys in their motion for a mistrial were seeking "carte blanche" to discuss whatever they wanted with the jury.
"But in this court they do not have carte blanche," Walls said. "The motion for a mistrial is denied and let's get on with our trial."
Testimony resumed shortly before noon on Monday, the beginning of the trial's ninth week. Defense attorneys could rest their case as early as today, after which they are expected to spar with prosecutors over how Walls is to instruct the jury on the law.
Neither Menendez nor Melgen has testified.
Defense attorneys moved for a mistrial last week over what they said were a series of decisions by Walls that had precluded them from putting on a defense.
In a 45-page brief filed Sunday evening and again during oral arguments Monday morning, defense attorneys provided examples of instances where they felt Walls had shown bias against the defense and erroneously prevented evidence and testimony that would provide "critical support" to several defense theories.
"We don't take this kind of motion lightly," Menendez attorney Abbe Lowell told Walls Monday morning. "We do it because we feel stifled."
"The defense motion grossly mischaracterizes the record in the effort to generate a public narrative that they're not getting a fair trial," lead prosecutor Peter Koski said in response.
He blasted the motion as the latest attempt by Menendez and Melgen to pass blame for their legal troubles.
"First they blamed the Cuban government, then they blamed President Obama, then they blamed Roger Stone," their own staff, the U.S. Department of Justice and now Walls, Koski said. "The defendants are simply unwilling to accept responsibility for their conduct and this motion is further evidence of that."
Joseph E. diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and now a criminal defense lawyer, said last week that motions for a mistrial "almost never" succeed "because the law is very clear that judges have a lot of discretion."
"What the defense attorneys are doing is preserving the record," diGenova said. "They are making a record by making a motion so they have it as an appealable issue if the senator is convicted."
Menendez stands accused of using his office to help Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye doctor and a longtime friend, to secure visas for his foreign girlfriends and to intervene in a lucrative port security contract in the Dominican Republic and a multimillion-dollar Medicare dispute.
In exchange, Menendez allegedly took bribes in the form of luxury vacations, free flights on Melgen's private jets and more than $700,000 in political contributions.
Menendez has vigorously denied the charges, saying that he will be vindicated at trial and run for re-election next year.
