| | | | |  | | By Ry Rivard | | Presented by |  | | | |  Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) leaves Manhattan federal court on June 6. | Yuki Iwamura/AP | GETTING PERSONAL — After over six weeks of testimony, federal prosecutors are expected to rest their case this week against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). But whether the charges stick or not, his trial is providing a continuously unvarnished and often staggeringly intimate look into the senator’s life. It’s become a trend this summer — political figures standing trial and having their personal life aired to the public under oath. Beyond the legal repercussions, these cases have provided insight into why politicians (and their next of kin) so desperately want to avoid going to trial. Consider former President Donald Trump, who had to sit in court while Stormy Daniels described the contents of their affair. Or Hunter Biden, who had to listen while the minute details of his drug addiction were publicly described. These two trials confirmed under oath much of what had already been reported, while adding new details. Menendez’s trial has been a similar public airing of private details of his life. But we’ve also gotten an even more comprehensive, previously unreported picture of his life — one that’s formed a crack in the image he’s attempted to maintain as a senator. At the start of Menendez’s second corruption trial in less than a decade, federal prosecutors presented $400,000 they had seized in cash from his home, along with gold bars that were also at his residence, to an ogling New York jury. Jurors have seen FBI photos of the rickety siding on his house, heard from his own lawyers about his rocky relationship with his wife and watched two of his closest friends be called by prosecutors to testify against him. At one point, Menendez also argued that the $133,000 the FBI found in a duffel bag in his home office was not bribes, but money he stashed in part to avoid government confiscation because of trauma his family had faced in Cuba. Menendez hired a would-be expert witness who diagnosed him with a mental defect that supposedly gave him a propensity to hoard cash. Details of that diagnosis were made public by prosecutors who successfully blocked the psychiatrist from testifying. But now we’ve all seen inside the senator’s head. Before charges were even filed last fall, his previous defense attorney, Abbe Lowell — who represented both John Edwards and Hunter Biden and so is no stranger to a high-profile hot mess — sat down with the top prosecutor for the Southern District of New York to try to head off an indictment. As part of that process, Lowell gave a presentation that cast blame on Menendez’s wife. Perhaps nothing in Menendez’ personal life has been thrown under a harsher spotlight than his relationship with his wife Nadine, and her own character. The senator’s defense team argues the couple largely led separate lives even after they were married, attempting, at times, to throw her under the bus. Now, they are being charged together but tried separately because Nadine is being treated for breast cancer. Since the trial began, jurors have seen photos of their messy basement, where cash was found stuffed in boots and a plastic bag from Forever 21, and where Home Depot boxes were stacked on top of each other for no apparent reason. They’ve heard testimony that, at least once, Menendez rang a bell to summon Nadine while in the middle of solidifying a scheme to disrupt a state investigation into a man who has since pleaded guilty to bribing the senator. They’ve watched one of the senator’s defense attorneys, Adam Fee, try to help his client by saying Menendez broke up with Nadine at one point before they married because she was still involved with another man. They’ve watched Fee suggest that, again before they were married, Nadine hoodwinked him by turning what was supposed to be an anniversary dinner into a meeting with her and men the government now calls co-conspirators. Throughout the trial, Menendez’ lawyers have attempted to cast doubt on his degree of involvement in the alleged scheme. It adds up to an exhaustive portrait of Menendez the man that’s far different from the sort of tactful and clever politician that he’s portrayed himself as during his almost 20 years in the U.S. Senate. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at rrivard@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ryrivard.
| | | | A message from Ford Foundation: A lack of high-speed internet impedes economic growth across the U.S., especially in the heartland of the nation. With the support of the Ford Foundation, innovative leaders are expanding high-quality internet access to ensure farmers, educators, businesses, and all communities can thrive in modern day society. Learn more. | | | | | — Supreme Court to hear case on gender-affirming care for trans youth: The Supreme Court agreed today to enter the national debate surrounding gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The justices will review the constitutionality of a Tennessee law, enacted last year, that bans hormone therapy and puberty blockers for transgender minors. The court’s decision will affect a wave of other state laws passed in recent years that restrict gender-affirming care for minors. The justices will likely hear the case in the fall, close to the November presidential election. — Biden condemns violence outside LA synagogue: President Joe Biden condemned violent clashes between pro-Palestine demonstrators and pro-Israel counterprotesters today outside a Los Angeles synagogue Sunday, saying he was “appalled” by the incident. “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American,” Biden wrote in an X post. “Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship — and engaging in violence — is never acceptable.” Los Angeles police said today that officers responded to a protest in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of the city that involved “several physical altercations” between the two groups, resulting in two reported batteries, both of which will be investigated. — Two Texas Republicans probed by outside ethics office for spending campaign cash at social clubs: The House’s nonpartisan ethics watchdog found “substantial reason to believe” that Texas Republican Reps. Ronny Jackson and Wesley Hunt used campaign money for personal or non-political purposes — on social club dues — according to reports released today. Campaign finance laws prohibit lawmakers from spending campaign funds on dues that provide unlimited access at social or country clubs but allow campaign spending on political events at such clubs. The outside Office of Congressional Ethics had previously probed $11,928.27 in payments from Jackson’s campaign to the Amarillo Club in his home state between October 2020 and January 2024. Hunt had been investigated for a similar violation at the Oak Room, a social club in Houston.
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | | | | | LOYALTY TEST — From his home office in small-town Kentucky, a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to the policies of Republican Donald Trump, a highly unusual and potentially chilling effort that dovetails with broader conservative preparations for a new White House, reports The Associated Press. Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security. They’re relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers. In a move that alarms some, they’re preparing to publish the findings online. With a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda — and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings. WE’LL DO IT LIVE — A Donald Trump spokesperson got into a tense exchange with CNN’s Kasie Hunt over debate hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper this morning — just days before the former president is set to face off against President Joe Biden on the cable network this week. Hunt cut Karoline Leavitt’s mic after an interview with the national press secretary on “This Morning” about Trump’s prep for Thursday’s debate spiraled into an argument. Leavitt called Bash and Tapper “biased” and said Trump is “knowingly going into a hostile environment.” Hunt defended her colleagues, calling them “professionals” who have interviewed candidates “from all sides of the aisle,” before asking Leavitt what she expects of Biden’s performance at the debate.
| | | | A message from Ford Foundation:   | | | | | | | 
France's Minister of the Armed Forces and Defense Sébastien Lecornu (center) receives his counterparts, Germany's Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (left), and Poland's Minister of Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (right) in Paris today. | Amaury Cornu/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images | LINKING ARMS — France, Germany and Poland agreed today to deepen defense cooperation ahead of a snap election that could see the far-right National Rally enter the French government. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu shared the stage with his German and Polish counterparts, Boris Pistorius and Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, to make the announcements on joint exercises, military mobility and industrial cooperation. Hanging over the meeting was the political storm unleashed by President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month. He unexpectedly dissolved parliament after his liberal party took a drubbing at the hands of the far-right in the European election. That could cost Lecornu his job. Today’s gathering was the first gathering of the three countries’ defense ministers since 2015, showing the revival of the so-called Weimar Triangle format after it went into a deep-freeze during the eight years that Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party was in power. PITCHED BATTLE — Thousands of soccer fans from neighboring Balkan states have unleashed their passionate national rivalries at Euro 2024 in Germany — and the ugly scenes are causing a headache for tournament organizers. UEFA, European football’s governing body, has been flooded with complaints from the football associations of the Balkan countries after offensive banners were flown and violent chants were sung in the stands, outside the stadiums and even on the pitch. The scars of relatively recent regional wars and a deep-seated distrust between neighbors have sparked aggravation at the flagship continental football tournament. The Balkans, with its tightly packed mix of diverse nations and ethnic groups, often sees nationalists clashing. Now, these groups have brought their coarse language and slurs to tournament venues in Germany. One Albanian player received a two-game ban after leading chants of “F**k Macedonia” after a game last week, while Croatian and Albanian fans have chanted “Kill the Serb!” Serbian supporters are being investigated over racist abuse during a match, and Slovenian and Serbian fans alike claimed that “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia,” a line which denies Kosovo its independence, claiming the youngest Balkan state should still be controlled by its northern neighbor, Serbia.
| | | | JOIN US ON 6/26 FOR A TALK ON AMERICA’S SUPPLY CHAIN: From the energy grid to defense factories, America’s critical sites and services are a national priority. Keeping them up and running means staying ahead of the threat and protecting the supply chains that feed into them. POLITICO will convene U.S. leaders from agencies, Congress and the industry on June 26 to discuss the latest challenges and solutions for protecting the supply lines into America’s critical infrastructure. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | PHONE SLANG — Have you noticed that everyone talks in a similar way now? Cultural and geographic differences have largely been flattened in the English-speaking world due to an internet culture that does two things: rewards new and creative slang and then quickly teaches everyone about it. A particular type of slang that pushes the boundaries of language that might once have been confined to a community, or taken a long time to reach mainstream status, now travels through our phones such that it enters a larger lexicon much more quickly. Dan Brooks examines this phenomenon in The Atlantic.
| | | |  On this date in 1945: Gen. George S. Patton Jr., escorted by Legionnaire John H. Ostrom, arrives in Hamilton, Mass. for a hometown celebration. | Abe Fox/AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
| | | | A message from Ford Foundation: Reliable, high-speed internet is no longer a luxury in the heartland or anywhere — it’s the foundation of a successful business, a necessity for sustainable farming practices and increased food production, a critical tool for education and health outcomes, and a key driver of community engagement and digital innovation. Indeed, access to broadband can determine an individual’s ability to thrive in modern-day society. And the solution is not one-size-fits-all, but a palette of ideas, individuals and institutions that, with support from groups like the Ford Foundation, can make high-speed internet access a reality. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
