Sen. Bob Menendez arrives for the first day of his trial at Manhattan federal court on Monday in New York. | Stefan Jeremiah/APSen. Bob Menendez looked on Monday as scores of prospective jurors entered a federal courtroom in Manhattan to select a dozen New Yorkers who will have more say over the Democrat’s legacy in the next two months than millions of New Jersey voters have had over the past five decades.
“I get very worked up,” the housing attorney said, during a meeting with Judge Sidney Stein about whether she could serve on the jury. She said the allegations in the case were “triggering.” The corruption trial is Menendez’s second in a decade. In 2017, he walked out of a New Jersey federal courthouse after a mistrial in a separate case when jurors deadlocked.