The indictment says Menendez reached out to an unnamed “senior state prosecutor in the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General” regarding the criminal prosecution into associates of Jose Uribe. Uribe allegedly promised a new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible in exchange for the senator’s help. Menendez contacted the unnamed senior official in the Attorney General’s office to request terms favorable to Uribe’s associate, according to the indictment.
The official, according to the indictment, considered Menendez’s actions “inappropriate and did not agree to intervene.” According to the indictment, the official at the Attorney General’s office did not share with prosecutors that Menendez contacted him to “avoid any potential inappropriate influence in the case.”
According to the indictment, in April 2019, the unnamed associate of Uribe resolved the prosecution with a plea agreement that recommended a non-incarceratory sentence. The plea was more favorable than what state prosecutors initially offered earlier in the case, according to the indictment.