Senator Only Paid for Private Jet Trips After a Reporter Asked About It, FBI Agent Says

Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, center, arrives at federal court with his children Alicia Menendez, left, and Robert Jr. Menendez in Newark, New Jersey, on Sept. 6, 2017.
Photographer: Louis Lanzano/Bloomberg

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By Neil Weinberg and David Voreacos

September 14, 2017 at 7:23 PM UTC

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Senator Robert Menendez reimbursed a close friend for tens of thousands of dollars in private jet trips more than two years after the fact -- and only after the press started asking questions, an FBI agent testified in the New Jersey Democrat’s corruption trial on Thursday.

Menendez and Salomon Melgen, the friend who provided the trips, are on trial in Newark, New Jersey federal court facing charges that the senator swapped official favors for luxury perks and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Both men have pleaded not guilty.