Jurors at Menendez corruption trial hear about a boozy dinner and an unusual offer

The night Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine met three Egyptian men at a ritzy steakhouse in Washington, D.C., Terrie Williams-Thompson was sitting nearby, straining to hear. On the 13th day of Menendez’s bribery trial in Manhattan, that proclamation was, in one way, the most damning of the day — federal prosecutor Lara Pomerantz‘s questioning of Williams-Thompson suggested it was a bald offer to foreign officials on behalf of Menendez, then one the most powerful politicians in the U.S. as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Still, Williams-Thompson and her partner secretly recorded a video showing Menendez refilling the men’s wine glasses and the couple laughing and talking animatedly with the men, showing the dinner party was a friendly one, despite defense attorneys’ insistence otherwise. A fortune in the bank Jurors also heard Tuesday from FBI special agent Anna Frenzilli, who led a search of Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box at an Englewood bank. Tuesday started with prosecutors complaining to Stein about defense attorneys’ lengthy cross-examinations and tendency to ignore Stein’s three-day advance deadline for new court filings by either side.