New York
Prosecutors portray Nadine Menendez as ‘partner in crime’ with convicted husband
NEW YORK (AP) — Nadine Menendez and her prison-bound husband — former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez — were “partners in crime,” a prosecutor told a jury Monday as opening statements began in her trial over allegations that the power couple accepted bribes of cash and gold bars.
The longtime senator was convicted last year of accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from three New Jersey businessmen. Now, a new jury will hear similar evidence about Nadine Menendez, 58, after her trial was postponed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said Nadine Menendez “did the dirty work” for the 71-year-old New Jersey Democrat, who is scheduled to report to prison in June to begin serving an 11-year sentence.
Defense attorney Barry Coburn told jurors they will have to exonerate Nadine Menendez because there will be an “absolute, utter failure of proof in this case.”
Nadine Menendez has pleaded not guilty to charges that she participated in the bribery scheme that resulted in her husband’s conviction.
“My wife, who had breast cancer reconstructive surgery just days ago, is being forced by the government to go to trial tomorrow,” Bob Menendez said last week on the social platform X before jury selection took place.
“Only the arrogance of the SDNY can be so cruel and inhumane,” Menendez added, referring to the Southern District of New York, where her trial is taking place. “They should let her fully recover!”
Prosecutors said the couple was bribed in return for a variety of favors, including using the senator’s influence to help some of them in their dealings with foreign governments. Menendez also was convicted of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction. A judge delayed the start of his prison term until June 6 so he could attend his wife’s trial.
Throughout his two-month trial, Nadine Menendez was mentioned repeatedly for her dealings with the businessmen. One of them testified he bought her a luxury car after the senator tried to get New Jersey prosecutors to drop a criminal investigation involving one of his associates.
In 2022, FBI agents raided the couple’s home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and found over $100,000 in gold bars and more than $480,000 cash stuffed in envelopes, shoeboxes, jackets and boots.
Bob Menendez said at trial that the gold belonged to his wife and the cash resulted from his habit of hoarding money after his parents fled Cuba in 1951 with only what they had hidden in a grandfather clock.
Menendez, who beat another corruption prosecution a decade ago, has aligned himself with Donald Trump’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City, and tagged the president in his March 17 complaint on X.
“This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core,” he told reporters after his sentencing. “I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
New York
Former teacher in NYC sentenced after posing as teen on Snapchat to solicit nude images from kids
NEW YORK (AP) — A former math teacher at an upscale private school in Brooklyn and one-time “Jeopardy!” champion was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison on charges that he posed as a teenager on Snapchat to solicit nude images and sexual videos from children.
Winston Nguyen, 38, had pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of use of a child in a sexual performance as a sexually motivated felony and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He will have to register as a sex offender after his release.
Prosecutors said Nguyen, who taught at Saint Ann’s School in the tony Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, pretended to be a teenage boy on Snapchat and himself sent nude images and videos to children and got the children to send illicit material back to him.
The children, who went to various schools in the city, were between the ages of 13 and 15 when the messaging occurred.
“This was a sickening betrayal of trust by a schoolteacher who solicited students into sending him graphic and nude photos,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.
In an email, Nguyen’s attorney, Frank Rothman, said his client “expressed true regret for his actions today and offered to engage in whatever restorative type healing process that the families of the students may suggest. But he understands that most likely it would not happen.”
Nguyen appeared on “Jeopardy!” in 2014.
New York
Passenger says a pilot forcibly removed him from plane bathroom. Now he is suing
NEW YORK (AP) — An Orthodox Jewish passenger says a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom while he was experiencing constipation, exposing his genitalia to other flyers during a flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston.
Yisroel Liebb, of New Jersey, described his trip through allegedly unfriendly skies in a federal lawsuit this week against the airline and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, whose officers he said boarded the plane upon landing and took him away in handcuffs.
Liebb and a fellow Orthodox Jewish traveler said the pilot made disparaging remarks about their faith. They said they were forced to miss a connecting flight to New York City while U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers paraded them through an airport terminal, placed them in holding cells and searched their luggage.
“CBP Officers responded to reports of a disturbance on a flight at the request of the airline,” CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Hilton Beckham said. “Due to the ongoing litigation, we are unable to provide any further comment.”
United Airlines declined to comment. Messages seeking comment were left for a lawyer representing Liebb and the other traveler, Jacob Sebbag.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Liebb said he was in the bathroom in the back of the plane for about 20 minutes on Jan. 28 when a flight attendant woke Sebbag from a nap and asked Sebbag to check on him.
Liebb said he explained his gastrointestinal predicament and assured Sebbag that he would be out soon. Sebbag then relayed that to the flight attendant, the lawsuit says.
About 10 minutes later, with Liebb still indisposed, the pilot approached Sebbag and asked him to check on Liebb, the lawsuit says. The pilot then yelled at Liebb to leave the bathroom immediately, the lawsuit says.
Liebb said he told the pilot that he was finishing up and would be out momentarily.
The pilot responded by breaking the lock, forcing the bathroom door open and pulling Liebb out with his pants still around his ankles, exposing his genitalia to Sebbag, flight attendants, and nearby passengers, according to the lawsuit.
Liebb and Sebbag said the pilot then pushed them back to their seats while threatening to have them arrested and making remarks about their faith and how “Jews act.”
After the two-hour flight landed in Houston, the men said about a half-dozen Customs and Border Protection officers boarded and escorted them off the plane.
Liebb said when he asked why they were being detained, an officer tightened his handcuffs and responded: “This isn’t county or state. We are Homeland. You have no rights here.”
The men said United booked them on a flight to New York City the next day for free, but any savings from the complementary tickets were lost because they had to pay for an overnight hotel stay and food during their delay.
New York
Federal lawsuit says the Trump administration has unlawfully shuttered the Voice of America
A lawsuit filed late Friday accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully shutting down the Voice of America and asks a federal court to restore the outlet that for decades has supplied news about the United States to nations around the world — including many that lack a free press of their own.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, was brought by Voice of America reporters, Reporters Without Borders and a handful of unions against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, the failed Arizona candidate who is President Trump’s representative there.
“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void,” the lawsuit said.
Lake has described the broadcast agency as a “giant rot” that needs to be stripped down and rebuilt.
Voice of America dates to World War II as a source of objective news, often beamed into authoritarian countries. Funded by Congress, it is protected by a charter that guarantees its product pass muster for journalistic rigor.
Suit accuses the administration of taking a ‘chainsaw’ approach
The lawsuit charges that the Trump administration has effectively shut it down unlawfully in the past week. Republicans have complained that the news source is infected by left-wing propaganda, a
contention its operators say isn’t backed up factually.
“The second Trump administration has taken a chainsaw to the agency as a whole in an attempt to shutter it completely,” the lawsuit said. There was no immediate response Friday to a request for comment from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and a handful of sister networks.
In an interview with Newsmax earlier this week, Lake described Voice of America as “like having a rotten fish and trying to find a portion that you can eat.”
In a post on X, she said the Agency for Global Media is “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer — a national security risk for the nation — and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.”
Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders in the United States, said his organization was compelled to act to protect Voice of America and the broader press freedom community.
There are other media-related actions, too
At VOA’s sister operation, Radio Free Asia, unpaid furloughs took effect on Friday for roughly 240 people in the operation’s Washington office, or 75% of the staff members, spokesman Rohit Mahajan said. Radio Free Asia has also moved to cancel freelance contracts with people who helped the agency gather news overseas.
Radio Free Asia also expects to file a lawsuit to keep congressionally-appropriated funding flowing, Mahajan said.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty filed suit on Tuesday, asking the U.S. District Court in Washington to compel the U.S. Agency for Global Media to make its next payment. RFE/RL currently broadcasts in 23 countries across Europe and Asia, in 27 different languages.
In its lawsuit, the organizations called the denial of funding unprecedented and said it has already forced operations to be significantly scaled back. “Without its congressionally appropriated funds, RFE/RL will also be forced to stop the vast majority of its journalistic work and will be at risk of ceasing to exist as an organization,” they argued.
Prosecutors portray Nadine Menendez as ‘partner in crime’ with convicted husband
NEW YORK (AP) — Nadine Menendez and her prison-bound husband — former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez — were “partners in crime,” a prosecutor told a jury Monday as opening statements began in her trial over allegations that the power couple accepted bribes of cash and gold bars.
The longtime senator was convicted last year of accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from three New Jersey businessmen. Now, a new jury will hear similar evidence about Nadine Menendez, 58, after her trial was postponed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said Nadine Menendez “did the dirty work” for the 71-year-old New Jersey Democrat, who is scheduled to report to prison in June to begin serving an 11-year sentence.
Defense attorney Barry Coburn told jurors they will have to exonerate Nadine Menendez because there will be an “absolute, utter failure of proof in this case.”
Nadine Menendez has pleaded not guilty to charges that she participated in the bribery scheme that resulted in her husband’s conviction.
“My wife, who had breast cancer reconstructive surgery just days ago, is being forced by the government to go to trial tomorrow,” Bob Menendez said last week on the social platform X before jury selection took place.
“Only the arrogance of the SDNY can be so cruel and inhumane,” Menendez added, referring to the Southern District of New York, where her trial is taking place. “They should let her fully recover!”
Prosecutors said the couple was bribed in return for a variety of favors, including using the senator’s influence to help some of them in their dealings with foreign governments. Menendez also was convicted of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction. A judge delayed the start of his prison term until June 6 so he could attend his wife’s trial.
Throughout his two-month trial, Nadine Menendez was mentioned repeatedly for her dealings with the businessmen. One of them testified he bought her a luxury car after the senator tried to get New Jersey prosecutors to drop a criminal investigation involving one of his associates.
In 2022, FBI agents raided the couple’s home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and found over $100,000 in gold bars and more than $480,000 cash stuffed in envelopes, shoeboxes, jackets and boots.
Bob Menendez said at trial that the gold belonged to his wife and the cash resulted from his habit of hoarding money after his parents fled Cuba in 1951 with only what they had hidden in a grandfather clock.
Menendez, who beat another corruption prosecution a decade ago, has aligned himself with Donald Trump’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City, and tagged the president in his March 17 complaint on X.
“This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core,” he told reporters after his sentencing. “I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
New York
Former teacher in NYC sentenced after posing as teen on Snapchat to solicit nude images from kids
NEW YORK (AP) — A former math teacher at an upscale private school in Brooklyn and one-time “Jeopardy!” champion was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison on charges that he posed as a teenager on Snapchat to solicit nude images and sexual videos from children.
Winston Nguyen, 38, had pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of use of a child in a sexual performance as a sexually motivated felony and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He will have to register as a sex offender after his release.
Prosecutors said Nguyen, who taught at Saint Ann’s School in the tony Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, pretended to be a teenage boy on Snapchat and himself sent nude images and videos to children and got the children to send illicit material back to him.
The children, who went to various schools in the city, were between the ages of 13 and 15 when the messaging occurred.
“This was a sickening betrayal of trust by a schoolteacher who solicited students into sending him graphic and nude photos,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.
In an email, Nguyen’s attorney, Frank Rothman, said his client “expressed true regret for his actions today and offered to engage in whatever restorative type healing process that the families of the students may suggest. But he understands that most likely it would not happen.”
Nguyen appeared on “Jeopardy!” in 2014.
New York
Passenger says a pilot forcibly removed him from plane bathroom. Now he is suing
NEW YORK (AP) — An Orthodox Jewish passenger says a United Airlines pilot forcibly removed him from an airplane bathroom while he was experiencing constipation, exposing his genitalia to other flyers during a flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston.
Yisroel Liebb, of New Jersey, described his trip through allegedly unfriendly skies in a federal lawsuit this week against the airline and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, whose officers he said boarded the plane upon landing and took him away in handcuffs.
Liebb and a fellow Orthodox Jewish traveler said the pilot made disparaging remarks about their faith. They said they were forced to miss a connecting flight to New York City while U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers paraded them through an airport terminal, placed them in holding cells and searched their luggage.
“CBP Officers responded to reports of a disturbance on a flight at the request of the airline,” CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Hilton Beckham said. “Due to the ongoing litigation, we are unable to provide any further comment.”
United Airlines declined to comment. Messages seeking comment were left for a lawyer representing Liebb and the other traveler, Jacob Sebbag.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Liebb said he was in the bathroom in the back of the plane for about 20 minutes on Jan. 28 when a flight attendant woke Sebbag from a nap and asked Sebbag to check on him.
Liebb said he explained his gastrointestinal predicament and assured Sebbag that he would be out soon. Sebbag then relayed that to the flight attendant, the lawsuit says.
About 10 minutes later, with Liebb still indisposed, the pilot approached Sebbag and asked him to check on Liebb, the lawsuit says. The pilot then yelled at Liebb to leave the bathroom immediately, the lawsuit says.
Liebb said he told the pilot that he was finishing up and would be out momentarily.
The pilot responded by breaking the lock, forcing the bathroom door open and pulling Liebb out with his pants still around his ankles, exposing his genitalia to Sebbag, flight attendants, and nearby passengers, according to the lawsuit.
Liebb and Sebbag said the pilot then pushed them back to their seats while threatening to have them arrested and making remarks about their faith and how “Jews act.”
After the two-hour flight landed in Houston, the men said about a half-dozen Customs and Border Protection officers boarded and escorted them off the plane.
Liebb said when he asked why they were being detained, an officer tightened his handcuffs and responded: “This isn’t county or state. We are Homeland. You have no rights here.”
The men said United booked them on a flight to New York City the next day for free, but any savings from the complementary tickets were lost because they had to pay for an overnight hotel stay and food during their delay.
New York
Federal lawsuit says the Trump administration has unlawfully shuttered the Voice of America
A lawsuit filed late Friday accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully shutting down the Voice of America and asks a federal court to restore the outlet that for decades has supplied news about the United States to nations around the world — including many that lack a free press of their own.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, was brought by Voice of America reporters, Reporters Without Borders and a handful of unions against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, the failed Arizona candidate who is President Trump’s representative there.
“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void,” the lawsuit said.
Lake has described the broadcast agency as a “giant rot” that needs to be stripped down and rebuilt.
Voice of America dates to World War II as a source of objective news, often beamed into authoritarian countries. Funded by Congress, it is protected by a charter that guarantees its product pass muster for journalistic rigor.
Suit accuses the administration of taking a ‘chainsaw’ approach
The lawsuit charges that the Trump administration has effectively shut it down unlawfully in the past week. Republicans have complained that the news source is infected by left-wing propaganda, a
contention its operators say isn’t backed up factually.
“The second Trump administration has taken a chainsaw to the agency as a whole in an attempt to shutter it completely,” the lawsuit said. There was no immediate response Friday to a request for comment from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and a handful of sister networks.
In an interview with Newsmax earlier this week, Lake described Voice of America as “like having a rotten fish and trying to find a portion that you can eat.”
In a post on X, she said the Agency for Global Media is “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer — a national security risk for the nation — and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.”
Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders in the United States, said his organization was compelled to act to protect Voice of America and the broader press freedom community.
There are other media-related actions, too
At VOA’s sister operation, Radio Free Asia, unpaid furloughs took effect on Friday for roughly 240 people in the operation’s Washington office, or 75% of the staff members, spokesman Rohit Mahajan said. Radio Free Asia has also moved to cancel freelance contracts with people who helped the agency gather news overseas.
Radio Free Asia also expects to file a lawsuit to keep congressionally-appropriated funding flowing, Mahajan said.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty filed suit on Tuesday, asking the U.S. District Court in Washington to compel the U.S. Agency for Global Media to make its next payment. RFE/RL currently broadcasts in 23 countries across Europe and Asia, in 27 different languages.
In its lawsuit, the organizations called the denial of funding unprecedented and said it has already forced operations to be significantly scaled back. “Without its congressionally appropriated funds, RFE/RL will also be forced to stop the vast majority of its journalistic work and will be at risk of ceasing to exist as an organization,” they argued.
