NEW YORK – Some evidence a federal judge excluded from the former New Jersey bribery trial Senator Bob Menendez was inadvertently put on a computer given to jurors, federal prosecutors revealed Wednesday, though they insisted it should have no effect on the Democrat’s conviction.

Prosecutors told Judge Sidney H. Stein in a letter that they recently discovered the error that caused a laptop to contain versions of several trial exhibits that did not contain the full redactions Stein ordered.

Menendez, 70, resigned from the Senate the following August his sentencing in July on 16 charges including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. He was forced to step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted in the case in the fall of 2023.

He is awaiting sentencing scheduled for Jan. 29 after a trial that brought charges that he accepted bribes in gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acted as an agent for the Egyptian government. Two businessmen were convicted along with him, while a third testified against him in a cooperation agreement.

His attorneys did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

In their letter, prosecutors said the incorrect versions of nine government exhibits lacked redactions ordered by Stein to ensure the exhibits did not violate the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which protects speech related to information shared by lawmakers.

Prosecutors told Stein on Wednesday that no action was necessary in light of the error for several reasons, including that defense attorneys did not object after inspecting documents on that laptop before it was given to jurors.

They also said there was a “reasonable probability” that no jurors saw the erroneously redacted exhibits and that the documents could not have prejudiced the defendants even if they had been seen by jurors, in part because they were “relevant secondary and cumulative”. with abundant evidence duly admitted.”

Menendez has indicated he plans to appeal his conviction. He also filed papers with Stein seeking an acquittal or a new trial. Part of his grounds for acquittal was that prosecutors violated his parliamentary right to speech and debate.

“The government overrode the senator’s constitutionally protected privilege of speech or debate in an effort to show that he took official action when, in reality, the evidence showed that he never used the authority of his office to do anything in exchange for a bribe. “, his lawyers wrote.

“Despite a 10-week trial, the government has provided no real evidence of an agreement, only speculation masquerading as deduction,” they said.

Menendez was appointed a U.S. senator in 2006 when the seat became open after Jon Corzine became governor. He was elected permanently in 2006 and again in 2012 and 2018.