New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez wants psychiatrist to testify about his habit of stockpiling cash
Source: CBS News
May 2, 2024 / 5:09 PM EDT
Washington — When federal investigators executed a search warrant at Sen. Bob Menendez's New Jersey home in June 2022, they found more than $480,000 in cash stashed in envelopes and coats, as well as 13 gold bars worth more than $100,000. They also seized nearly $80,000 from his wife's safe deposit box at a nearby bank.
After Menendez was charged last year with corruption, he explained that for 30 years he withdrew thousands of dollars each month from his personal savings account in case of emergencies. The "old-fashioned" habit, he said, had roots in his family's experience in Cuba. In a letter that was disclosed Wednesday, the Democratic senator's attorneys argued the habit resulted from "two significant traumatic events" in his life.
A psychiatrist who evaluated Menendez would be expected to testify at trial that he "suffered intergenerational trauma stemming from his family's experience as refugees, who had their funds confiscated by the Cuban government and were left with only a small amount of cash that they had stashed away in their home," the senator's lawyers said last month in a letter to prosecutors.
The psychiatrist, Karen Rosenbaum, would also be expected to testify that he "experienced trauma when his father, a compulsive gambler, died by suicide after Senator Menendez eventually decided to discontinue paying off his father's gambling debts." Menendez developed a mental condition, which was never treated, in response to the lifelong traumas, the letter said. The condition was redacted in the public filing.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-menendez-corruption-trial-cash-gold-bars-psychiatrist/
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