Ex-Senator Menendez seeks Second Circuit rescue from bribery conviction

Former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez asked the Second Circuit on Thursday to overturn his bribery conviction and 11-year sentence, arguing prosecutors violated the Constitution's speech-or-debate clause by putting his legislative acts on trial rather than proving a corrupt quid pro quo. His attorney, former Trump solicitor general Noel Francisco, argued that influence alone is not coercion, and that Menendez would have needed to threaten or pressure another official directly.

Prosecutors countered that the conviction rested on overwhelming evidence in a trial that fully complied with the Constitution, and one judge on the three-judge panel questioned whether the government's cited precedent, Marbury v. Madison, still fits two centuries later. Menendez also challenged unredacted evidence reaching jurors' laptops during deliberations. The panel did not rule from the bench.

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