Menendez: $480K in cash seized at home was for 'emergencies'

Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who faces federal bribery, fraud and extortion charges, said Monday that the $480,000 in cash seized by federal agents at his home was withdrawn from his personal savings account and kept on hand for “emergencies.” 

“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” Menendez said.

The New Jersey senator acknowledged that keeping a huge pile of cash at home may appear unusual but insisted he didn’t break the law. 

“Now this may seem old-fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years,” he said.  

Federal agents seized more than $480,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothing and closets when they raided his home in June of 2022.  

Some envelopes were marked with the fingerprints and DNA of one of Menendez’s co-defendants, Fred Daibes, or Daibes’s driver. 

Agents also seized two 1-kilogram gold bars and nine 1-ounce gold bars that had serial numbers indicating that they had once belonged to Daibes.

Federal prosecutors say Daibes paid Menendez in return for the senator trying to interfere with his criminal prosecution by the New Jersey attorney general’s office.  

Menendez on Monday did not mention or provide an explanation for the gold bars, nor a $60,000 Mercedes that was largely paid for by another co-defendant, Jose Uribe, who provided a $15,000 cash down payment for the luxury car that was found at the senator’s home.

“I look forward to addressing other issues at trial,” Menendez said.