Posted on 05/16/2024 4:07:44 PM PDT by RandFan
Menendez’s statement about his wife was released just after opening statements were completed and the presentation of evidence began at his trial in Manhattan federal court.
The trial’s first witness was an FBI agent, Aristotelis Kougemitros, who described leading a June 2022 raid on the couple’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home.
He testified that two 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) gold bars, 11 1-ounce gold bars and $486,461 in cash were among valuables found in the home, along with cellphones and jewelry. In all, 52 items were seized.
At first, Kougemitros said, the FBI had directed agents to photograph any cash that was found, but not necessarily to seize it.
But he said that based on his experience and training, along with the “totality of the circumstances,” that he decided the amount of cash was so voluminous that it would be seized.
“I believed there was evidence potentially of a crime,” he said, drawing an objection from Menendez’s lawyer that was sustained by the judge.
Through dozens of photographs and the agent’s testimony, jurors were taken on a tour of the home as Kougemitros described where cash and the gold bars were discovered by a team of eight agents that was later supplemented by two Manhattan agents who brought cash-counting machines.
The gold bars were found in a safe and on the floor nearby inside locked closets in a bedroom, he said. Much of the cash was found stuffed in jacket pockets, in two pairs of boots and on a shelf in the home’s basement, he said.
One pair of Timberland boots contained $14,500 in cash nearly evenly divided while another set of boots also had cash stuffed in each boot, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Sick jerk
How do we know he's telling the truth?
The gold bars were for his wife’s treatments.
We have to remember that this is the same EffBI that trashed all the evidence in Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse.
One of the agents admitted that.
All the evidence would have been trashed "by accident"...
That’s okay...Bureau of Prisons has medical facilities,
Dismissed.
The poor guy, why won’t everyone just leave he and his wife alone ?
I mean there is no evidence of anything, everyone I know has gold bars and lots of cash in their closets, I mean their safe closets.
btw someone I know needs another one, has anyone ever had experience with snapsafe.com?
when all else fails lean to the sorrowful sympathy
Tough titty, said the kitty.
Change the subject. Don’t look there! Look over here!
Ohhhhhh. Medical problem. Women. Poor me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.