Bob Menendez is burning through cash as the New Jersey senator’s legal woes mount and fundraising plummets

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s campaign raised less than $1,300 in the first three months of 2024, capping off a precipitous decline in his fundraising and a sharp uptick in his legal spending since his indictment on federal corruption charges last year.

The New Jersey Democrat, who announced last month that he would not seek reelection in New Jersey’s June 4 primary but left open the possibility of an independent run, reported that paltry $1,221 fundraising haul in campaign financial filings submitted Monday for contributions received between Jan. 1 through March 31.

Over the same period, the campaign burned through more than $550,000 from its $6.2 million war chest on legal expenses, including payments to Jones Day, a Washington D.C.-based, white-shoe law firm representing him in legal woes.

A separate legal defense fund, formed specifically to pay Menendez’s legal bills, raised nearly $189,000 in the first quarter of 2024 and spent nearly all of it paying the same firm.

Those paltry numbers underscore the financial strain that has beset the three-term senator since federal authorities accused him in September of accepting cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes-Benz from three New Jersey businessmen seeking his influence to advance their personal, professional, and political interests.

» READ MORE: From gold bars to a pricey car: All the bribes Sen. Bob Menendez has been accused of accepting over the years

Menendez has denied the accusations and vowed to fight the case at a trial slated to begin May 6 in federal court in Manhattan.

“I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election,” he said in a video last month in which he announced his decision to bow out of the Democratic primary race.

And while his campaign still boasts a hefty $5.7 million in reserves, his rate of legal spending and lack of fundraising could rapidly deplete that sum and strain his ability to spend should he decide to launch an independent run.

By comparison, U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, the presumptive Democratic nominee and likely front-runner in the general election run for Menendez’s seat, reported raising just shy of $7 million in the first quarter of 2024, leaving him with a total of $4.2 million cash on hand.

Recent polling gives Kim a sharp edge in a potential three-way race between him, Menendez and two Republicans seeking their party’s nomination — developer Curtis Bashaw and Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner.

A Farleigh Dickinson University poll out Monday showed Menendez drawing between 6 and 7% of the vote — to Kim’s 45 to 44%, depending on the Republican nominee. Ten to 12% of respondents said they did not yet have enough information to make up their minds.

“Despite all of his legal problems, Menendez still has a base,” said poll director Dan Cassino. “He’s not going to win, but he might be able to make things uncomfortable for the Democrats.”

Regardless of what traction Menendez could gain in the race should he run, an independent candidacy would allow him to continue to raise money to cover his mounting legal bills.

Federal Election Commission regulations allow candidates to spend campaign cash on legal expenses that would not have occurred but for the candidate’s duties as a federal officeholder.

And while campaign contributions are capped at $3,300, those limits are much higher for contributions to his legal defense fund.

The latest reports from Menendez’s legal fund, filed Monday, show it was buoyed in the first quarter of 2024 largely by gifts from big-money donors.

One family dominated the list of top contributors. David Barry, co-owner of Ironstate Development and founder and CEO of the real estate platform Urby LLC pitched in a maximum $10,000 donation, as did his wife Kyra, of Applied Development Co.

Jennifer Barry, a homemaker from Short Hills, kicked in the same amount. As did MIB Holdings LLC, a company that shares the same Hoboken address with David and Kyra Barry’s firms.

That $40,000 total from Barry family members and affiliated businesses comprised just over one-fifth of the fund’s total fundraising between January and March of this year and followed another $10,000 a company associated with the family donated in July.

The Barrys also contributed heavily to Menendez’s defense during his first trial on federal bribery charges in 2015 — a case in which he was accused of using his influence to help a Florida eye doctor in exchange for lavish vacations and campaign donations. The judge presiding over that case ultimately acquitted Menendez of some charges after a hung jury and mistrial, and prosecutors opted not to retry the case.

At the time, Menendez’s then-chief of staff Fred Turner called the family — led by Joseph Barry, a retired New Jersey real estate developer who served two years in prison in the 2000s for making illegal kickbacks to a Hudson County executive — “longtime friends and supporters of the senator.”

Other top donors this reporting cycle include KRE Property Management Company, a company run by Jonathan Kushner, a cousin of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.

Since last year, the company has donated $20,000 to the fund.

Staff writer Aseem Shukla contributed to this article.