Menendez Witness Braces for Questions on ‘His Lies and His Cheating’

Jose Uribe, a star government witness with a checkered past, is expected to testify on Tuesday for a third day at Senator Robert Menendez’s bribery trial as the focus of the proceeding shifts toward a series of face-to-face meetings that Mr. Uribe had with the senator.

Mr. Uribe, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Mr. Menendez with a Mercedes-Benz, is likely to face hours of cross-examination by defense lawyers about at least one element that was missing from his direct testimony: any discussion with the senator of a payoff.

“I never talked to Mr. Menendez about making payments for the car,” Mr. Uribe said in court on Monday.

Mr. Uribe’s testimony did reveal two private meetings with the senator that were not mentioned in a federal indictment against Mr. Menendez.

And his firsthand account as a witness goes to the heart of the government’s case against Mr. Menendez, a once-powerful Democrat who is in his fifth week of trial. He is charged with accepting cash, gold and the Mercedes-Benz in exchange for meddling in criminal investigations, steering aid to Egypt and propping up a friend’s halal meat certification monopoly.

Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife, and two New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are also charged in the bribery conspiracy. All four have pleaded not guilty.