Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez Claims ‘Intergenerational Trauma’ Caused Him To Hide Gold Bars & Cash In His Home

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D) argued that the gold bars and cash found in his home during an FBI raid were a result of “generational trauma.”

According to an indictment disclosed in federal court, Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were charged with violating corruption and bribery laws. The couple allegedly engaged in a scheme in 2018 to aid the Egyptian government. 

The indictment states that Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, which were paid in cash, gold bars, home mortgage payments, luxury vehicles and “other things of value.”

During the search of the New Jersey senator’s home in 2022, federal agents revealed that they found hidden cash and gold bars. Investigators also found over $480,000 in cash hidden in envelopes and clothing. In addition, $70,000 was found in Nadine’s safe deposit box. An examination of the senator’s search history showed that he was researching information on the “kilo of gold price.”

After the indictment, Menendez denied all of the claims made against him, accusing federal prosecutors of attempting to dig his “political grave.”

In a letter that was revealed on May 1, the senator’s attorneys claimed that he stashed gold bars and cash as a result of “two significant traumatic events” in his life. 

Menendez’s lawyers mentioned in a letter to prosecutors last month that the psychiatrist who evaluated him would be expected to testify during his bribery trial that he “suffered intergenerational trauma stemming from his family’s experience as refugees, who had their funds confiscated by the Cuban government and were left with only a small amount of cash that they had stashed away in their home.”

The psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Rosenbaum, would also be expected to testify that he had “experienced trauma when his father, a compulsive gambler, died by suicide after Senator Menendez eventually decided to discontinue paying off his father’s gambling debts.” 

According to the letter, Menendez developed a mental condition, which had never received treatment, in response to the long-lasting traumatic events. The condition was redacted in the public filing.

The letter also mentioned that the condition and “lack of treatment resulted in a fear of scarcity for the senator and the development of a longstanding coping mechanism of routinely withdrawing and storing cash in his home.” 

Prosecutors who opposed the proposed testimony included the letter in a legal filing on May 1 and asked the judge to keep the psychiatrist from testifying. 

They asserted that Rosenbaum’s conclusion “does not appear to be the product of any reliable scientific principle or method” and is an attempt to gain sympathy from the jury. 

The prosecutors also mentioned that if the judge lets the psychiatrist take the witness stand, they should be able to have the senator examined by a different psychiatrist. 

Menendez’s trial is scheduled to start on May 13.

Manhattan federal prosecutors argued that the accused should not be allowed to cause “confusion and distraction” by calling upon a psychiatrist to testify at his trial.

Federal prosecutors also claimed in court papers filed on May 1 that the senator should be barred from calling Rosenbaum as an expert to “opine” about how his family tribulations, such as his dad’s suicide over gambling debts, caused him to hoard funds at home.

The government stated that Menendez requires no expert witness to discuss the claim.

They also noted that the defendant or somebody close to him could make a claim to jurors.

“Rosenbaum’s explanation of why Menendez stored cash in his home appears to be little more than an impermissible attempt to offer hearsay statements of the defendant and to seek to engender sympathy based on his family background, in the guise of expert testimony,” prosecutors wrote.

Menendez’s lawyers slammed prosecutors for outing his sensitive mental health information as the two sides argued about whether or not a psychiatrist should be allowed to testify for him at his trial.

On May 2, the lawyers asserted in a letter to Manhattan federal judge Sidney Stein that government attorneys “publicly revealed deeply private and sensitive details about Senator Menendez’s personal history and mental health diagnosis.”

The defense team also mentioned that the exposure and following media coverage “likely infect[ed] the pool of potential jurors.”

In December 2023, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) called for the expulsion of Menendez from the U.S. Senate.

Fetterman told The View, in reference to the accusations of bribery made by the federal prosecutors, that the senator had been more of a “senator from Egypt, not New Jersey.”

In a court filing made in February, federal prosecutors accused Menendez and Nadine of fabricating a “false cover story” about the origin of the gold bars.

According to court documents, Nadine told a jeweler that the gold bars were inherited from her late mother. A Menendez staffer reported that the senator tried to make a similar claim and insisted that the gold came from his deceased mother-in-law. 

The explanations appeared false since the gold bars were stamped with the name “Menendez.”

Prosecutors also revealed that four of the gold bars had serial numbers with those owned by Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate tycoon and one of Menendez’s alleged bribers.