Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez Allegedly Pressurized Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to Intervene in a Criminal Case

The indictment of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) has revealed that he pressurized a senior official in the New Jersey Attorney General’s office into intervening in a criminal case for one of the three men that were charged last week along with him and his wife, Nadine. Reports in local media speculate that the official, referred by the federal prosecutors as “Official-2,” is former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. 

The Department of Justice claimed that Menendez contacted Grewal in January 2019 in “an attempt to influence the prosecution of Jose Uribe, a businessman, allegedly in exchange for the purchase of a $60,000 Mercedes convertible for the senator’s wife.” The Indian American considered Menendez’s actions “inappropriate and did not agree to intervene,” the DOJ added. However, Grewal did not share his interaction with Menendez with the prosecution team, the DOJ noted, “to avoid any potential inappropriate influence in the case.”The New Jersey Globe speculates that Grewal could likely be a government witness against the senator. 

According to the indictment, Menendez met with Grewal at his Newark Senate office and “through advice and pressure, to cause Official-2 to favorably resolve the investigation.” Menendez told Uribe he thought the meeting was “very positive,” the indictment says. Uribe later called Menendez in Washington around Oct. 29, and “within minutes of getting off the phone,” he texted Nadine Menendez, writing, “I just got a call, and I am a very happy person.” and “God bless you and him forever,”  the indictment stated. Several nights later, the senator, his wife, Uribe, and another person met for a celebratory dinner and toasted with a bottle of champagne.

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Grewal, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, was sworn in as New Jersey’s 61st Attorney General On Jan. 16, 2018. He has filed lawsuits for the state against former President Donald Trump’s administration, including on border separations, the environment and the Affordable Care Act. He left the attorney general’s office in 2021 to become the director of the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Before becoming New Jersey’s attorney general, Grewal served as Bergen County Prosecutor. Additionally, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, where he served as Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit from 2014 to 2016, overseeing the investigation and prosecution of all major white-collar and cybercrimes in the state. He also previously worked in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where he was assigned to the Business and Securities Fraud Unit Grewal graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1995. He obtained his law degree from the College of William & Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1999.