Bribery trial for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez to open

Opening arguments in U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s federal corruption trial are set to begin Wednesday, more than two years after the New Jersey Democrat was charged with bribery as part of a scheme to sell his influence in exchange for luxury vacations, gifts, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a Florida eye doctor.

Menendez, who is up for reelection next year, has unsuccessfully asked the judge to delay the trial and change the schedule so that he could participate in “critical votes” before the Senate, underscoring the larger political dynamics at play. For example, the Republican-controlled Senate in July fell one vote short of proceeding with a plan to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.

Also charged is Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who prosecutors say lavished Menendez with gifts, sometimes on demand, in exchange for the senator’s efforts to resolve a multimillion-dollar dispute with the federal government, protect his financial interests in the Dominican Republican, and obtain visas for the doctor’s foreign girlfriends.

Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section plan to call witnesses such as the senator’s staffers, public officials they say Menendez pressured on behalf of his benefactor, and guests and pilots who accompanied and flew Menendez to resorts in the Dominican Republic and a hotel stay in Paris.

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