Credit: (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Attorneys for Bob Menendez asked a judge to dismiss legal charges against the U.S. senator from New Jersey who is accused of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar. The defense argues that prosecutors have construed wrongdoing out of standard interactions with foreign officials.

In a court filing Wednesday, lawyers defending Menendez leaned on the precedent from a unanimous 2016 Supreme Court ruling that narrowed what can be considered public corruption. They also cited a section of the Constitution that shields members of Congress from interference by the executive or judicial branches of the federal government.

Menendez’s actions with foreign leaders are standard for federal lawmakers, his lawyers wrote in a 49-page brief.

The motion to dismiss the case, docketed in federal court in Manhattan, marks the first formal rebuttal the senator’s legal team has made for him and it mirrors much of what Menendez said on the Senate floor Tuesday, when he said he was “entirely innocent.”

Prosecutors accused Menendez, 70, and his wife, Nadine, of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes — some in the form of cash, others in goods, like furniture, a car and jewelry — to complete favors for and provide information to benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments.

Not guilty all around

Menendez, his wife and the three New Jersey businessmen indicted in connection with the payments pleaded not guilty.

“Every official act the Senator took represented his good-faith policy judgments based solely on appropriate considerations,” Menendez’s lawyers wrote in the brief. “The Senator stands behind all of his official actions and decisions, and will be proud to defend them at trial.”

Yaakov Roth, an attorney who argued the 2016 case before the Supreme Court and defended Bridget Kelly, an aide to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the so-called Bridgegate scandal, joined Menendez’s defense team this week, court papers show.

In the 2016 case, Roth defended former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican who had been charged with accepting money and gifts from a pharmaceutical executive in exchange for helping the executive’s company grow.

While a federal appeals court found McDonnell in 2014 guilty on 11 counts of corruption, he appealed and the Supreme Court ultimately found in his favor, vacating his conviction.

Building a case

Menendez’s team builds its case in part on the McDonnell ruling, saying meeting with the public or foreign officials is not corrupt.

“The government also makes much of the fact that constituents were invited to meetings with foreign dignitaries. And the government goes so far as to impugn the Senator for introducing constituents to investors abroad,” the defense lawyers wrote. “None of this is illegal, or even improper.”

The brief adds that “such unofficial acts cannot support a bribery charge.”

The lawyers also said Menendez is protected under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, a provision that furnishes general criminal and civil immunity to lawmakers when performing tasks in their official responsibilities.

The clause also shields members of Congress against political intrusion by the executive and judicial branches of the federal government.

It can be hard to parse the intentions of a member or look deep into the meaning of a vote, Menendez’s attorneys argued.

“Suppose a senator comes back from Israel and says he will support whatever aid Prime Minister Netanyahu seeks. When he does so, is that at the ‘order’ or ‘request’ of a foreign power?” they wrote. “Does it matter whether he would vote that way anyway? Is this really a question for a jury at trial?”