Embattled Sen. Robert Menendez failed Tuesday to get a federal judge to move his corruption trial from Newark, New Jersey to Washington.
The New Jersey senator pleaded not guilty in April to 14 criminal counts against him. The charges included eight counts of bribery involving Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.
A 68-page indictment accused the Democrat of intervening on behalf of Melgen’s three girlfriends’ visa applications and receiving nearly $1 million in trips, political contributions and other perks.
Menendez’s attorneys argued that the case should be in Washington, since the majority of the alleged crimes were committed there. But prosecutors wanted the trial in New Jersey because the senator lives in the state and received the gifts there.
The two men have been friends for a decade, which Menendez said is the reason behind the exchanges.
They “don’t know the difference between friendship and corruption and have chosen to twist my duties as a senator and my friendship into something that is improper,” he said earlier.
Menendez stepped down from being the Senate’s highest-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted but remains active in the Senate. His most recent priority has been managing a bill he co-authored that aims to establish a congressional review of an Iran nuclear deal.