(Tribune News Service) — Thirteen gold bars. Half a million dollars in cash. A shiny new Mercedes-Benz.

Details of the federal indictment of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., paint a lurid portrait of alleged corruption.

But now one crucial piece — the testimony of a key witness — might offer hope for the defense of the New Jersey Democrat. That witness is Gurbir Grewal, the attorney general of New Jersey during the events in question.

The feds say Menendez tried to pressure Grewal to “favorably resolve” two criminal matters in the state at the behest of a businessman who bribed the senator with a Mercedes.

But Grewal painted a more subtle picture of Menendez to prosecutors, according to people familiar with the matter. Grewal said the senator didn’t explicitly ask him to take any action and didn’t name anyone with criminal matters before the attorney general’s office, the people said. Rather, he spoke more broadly of a policy concern. Still, his approach struck Grewal as inappropriate, they said.

Grewal’s account to prosecutors, which hasn’t been reported previously, may allow Menendez’s lawyers to argue the senator did not break the law when the two men spoke, legal experts say.

Grewal, now director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is just one piece of a sweeping indictment accusing Menendez of crimes including conspiracies to commit bribery and to act as an agent of Egypt. The senator was indicted with his wife, Nadine, and three businessmen. All five pleaded not guilty.

Menendez, whose first corruption case ended in a mistrial six years ago, has faced swift repercussions. He’s stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Tammy Snyder Murphy, wife of Gov. Phil Murphy, is running for his seat next year, along with U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J.

At the trial, now scheduled for May, jurors must decide whether Menendez took bribes for “official acts,” a key aspect of corruption cases that has hamstrung prosecutors. The Supreme Court has said an official act includes a decision or action on a suit or proceeding. It can also involve pressuring or advising another official to act.

If Grewal testifies, “the defense has compelling arguments that the interactions that the senator had with Grewal are not ‘official acts’ in the way that the law required,” said Arlo Devlin-Brown, a former federal prosecutor at Covington & Burling.

Menendez said that while he can’t comment specifically on the case, the Grewal account “just goes to show what I’ve been saying all along. The prosecution presented a limited set of facts as salaciously as possible in an effort to win their case through the media. I remain confident that when all the facts have been presented I will be found innocent.”

Grewal and a spokesman for Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York overseeing the case, declined to comment.

Grewal described his conversations to prosecutors in two debriefings, according to people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors allege the senator wanted Grewal — referred to as Official-2 in the indictment — to “favorably resolve” two legal matters to help Jose Uribe, who was indicted with Menendez. Uribe worked in the insurance and trucking businesses, and had lost his insurance broker’s license because of a fraud conviction, the U.S. said.

Uribe wanted Menendez to help with an insurance fraud indictment of an associate and a related criminal investigation. The Grewal account of how Menendez went about it showed the senator was careful and canny in choosing his words, the people said.

On Jan. 29, 2019, Menendez called Grewal out of the blue to complain about the state Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor. As attorney general, Grewal oversaw hundreds of criminal cases filed by his 8,000-person office. It was routine for Grewal to speak to elected officials about policy matters, people who know him say. But talking about individual cases was off limits.

Menendez, a son of Cuban immigrants and a leading voice for Latinos, said the insurance fraud office was mistreating Hispanics in the trucking industry, the people said. Grewal asked if it involved a criminal matter. The senator said it did, but was careful not to mention a defendant’s name. Rather, he said it involved a client of Michael Critchley, a prominent defense attorney. Grewal said Critchley knew how to take complaints through the proper channels. The client pleaded guilty three months later and got probation.

That July, Uribe needed help again. He contacted Nadine Arslanian, then the senator’s girlfriend and now his wife, about a related investigation involving a broker at the insurance company controlled by Uribe, according to the indictment. When a state detective wanted to interview the broker, Uribe texted Arslanian, saying they must “make things go away.”

This time, Menendez asked Grewal to meet at the senator’s office in Newark. Menendez reiterated his earlier complaint about the insurance office’s treatment of Hispanic people. Grewal asked if this was related to the Critchley case. Menendez said it was, and Grewal said he couldn’t help, the people said. The indictment said Grewal did not agree to intervene.

The subtle approach by Menendez — no names, no direct ask — may not be a compelling defense, said Reid Schar, a former federal prosecutor now at Jenner & Block. An ask need not be explicit to be criminal, Schar said.

“Instead of saying ‘Dismiss the case against this particular person,’ Sen. Menendez essentially advocated to dismiss against everyone who looks like the particular person,” Schar said. “That effectively gets the person who prosecutors say bribed Sen. Menendez what he wanted without being as obvious.”

While Grewal’s testimony may complicate the government’s case, prosecutors have plenty of other evidence, including texts, bank records, photographs, gold bars and the cash.

In October 2019, for instance, Menendez called Uribe from his Senate office in Washington, almost two months after meeting with Grewal in Newark. Uribe was pleased by what he’d heard.

“I just got a call, and I am a very happy person,” Uribe texted Nadine Arslanian, according to the indictment. A few days later, they celebrated at a champagne dinner with the senator.

Uribe gave $15,000 in cash to Nadine Arslanian in a restaurant parking lot, prosecutors say. She used that amount as a down payment on the Mercedes, and Uribe made 32 monthly payments on the car, stopping only when the senator’s house was searched.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Visit bloomberg.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.