Kasowitz Secures Extraordinary Leniency for José Uribe, Star Witness in Historic Sen. Menendez Corruption Case

Kasowitz secured an extraordinary sentencing result for José Uribe, the star cooperating witness in the historic corruption case against former Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez.  Mr. Uribe was facing a statutory maximum sentence of 95 years in prison, though he received no jail time, because the Court recognized his highly significant and extremely useful cooperation and devastating testimony in the case against Senator Menendez and his wife. 
 
The case, United States v. Menendez et al., marks one of the most consequential political corruption prosecutions in modern U.S. history and one of the rare instances in which a sitting U.S. senator has been tried and convicted on federal bribery charges.  Mr. Uribe was indicted in the Southern District of New York in the high-profile corruption prosecution of then sitting New Jersey Senator, Robert Menendez, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, and two other co-conspirators, for allegedly bribing the Senator and his wife with, among other things, payments on a Mercedes Benz in exchange for Senator Menendez, among other things, intervening in investigations by the New Jersey Attorney General into one of Mr. Uribe’s associates and potentially into Mr. Uribe’s insurance company and family member.  

Mr. Uribe was the government’s only star witness at the two-month trial of former Senator Robert Menendez and two of his alleged co-conspirators, providing what one media outlet described as “bombshell testimony [that] riveted the packed courtroom” and what other media outlets have described as “blockbuster” testimony.  He also was the government’s sole star witness at the one-month trial of former Senator Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, in April of 2025.  
 
The Kasowitz team representing Mr. Uribe included partners Marc E. Kasowitz, Daniel J. Fetterman, Ann M. St. Peter-Griffith, and Fria R. Kermani.