**Written by Doug Powers

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s legal team would have tried getting a mistrial declared by slipping the judge a big envelope filled with cash, but ironically the only way that would have been guaranteed to work would have been if the judge was Senator Menendez. Back to the drawing board:

Eight weeks of occasionally star-studded testimony by the likes of Senator Cory Booker and former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius came to an anticlimactic conclusion. The final defense witness was a law firm analyst who testified about flight records in a bid to show that Menendez’s frequent travels to Melgen’s Dominican Republic home were part of a long-term friendship, rather than a corrupt pact between the men.

Menendez, the senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey, stands accused of using his office to carry out favors for Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye doctor. In exchange, Melgen is accused of providing the prominent Democrat with hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions and luxury trips to the Dominican Republic and Paris.

Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge William Walls rejected a defense motion to declare a mistrial on the grounds that his rulings had prevented attorneys for Menendez and Melgen from countering the government’s charges.

Meanwhile, Menendez’s attorneys are plotting their next move:

(h/t Ed Morrissey at Hot Air)

**Written by Doug Powers

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