NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey businessman who testified in opposition to former Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his spouse at separate bribery trials received’t go to jail, after a choose credited him at his sentencing Thursday for exhibiting honesty on the witness stand and honest regret.

Jose Uribe was sentenced in Manhattan federal court docket by Choose Sidney H. Stein, who stated he performed a vital position within the convictions “in a serious conspiracy involving different international locations and corruption of the very best order.”

Menendez, 71, resigned from the Senate after his conviction final 12 months on 16 fees, together with having acted as a overseas agent for Egypt. He’s serving an 11-year jail sentence. His spouse, Nadine Menendez, was sentenced final month to 4½ years in jail.

Their trials featured testimony about tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in gold bars, money and a Mercedes-Benz convertible that had been paid in bribes to the couple by three New Jersey businessmen, together with Uribe, in return for actions by the senator on their behalf.

“I’m not going to incarcerate you. I feel you are extraordinarily remorseful,” Stein stated of Uribe, who was the federal government’s star witness on the Menendez trials.

He ordered Uribe to serve six months of house detention, although he can go away house for work, schooling or non secular causes. The choose additionally ordered Uribe to forfeit $292,000 and pay $866,000 in restitution.

Two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, had been additionally convicted within the bribery scheme. Daibes, an actual property developer, was sentenced this 12 months to seven years in jail, whereas Hana, an entrepreneur, acquired an eight-year sentence.

At trial, Uribe testified that he supplied a $15,000 down fee in 2019 for the Mercedes and organized month-to-month automotive funds from 2019 to 2022 in return for the senator’s assist in shielding his firm from New Jersey felony probes of one other trucking firm.

Uribe apologized for his “horrible” crimes, saying he was “sorry and embarrassed.” He grew to become choked up as he apologized to his household.

“I’ll by no means violate the regulation once more,” he instructed Stein.

Assistant U.S. Lawyer Lara Pomerantz referred to as Uribe’s cooperation courageous and beneficial, noting that it was “not on a regular basis a cooperator testifies on the trial of a sitting U.S. senator.”

She stated it was “simple to think about why folks weren’t lining as much as testify,” since everybody knew that he was a very highly effective senator who was chairman of the Senate International Relations Committee when he was criminally charged within the fall of 2023. Menendez was pressured from the place quickly afterward.

She referred to as the felony probe that preceded the trials a “long-running investigation of uncommon and historic gravity,” and stated a few of the felony conduct would have gone unknown with out Uribe’s assist.

Protection legal professional Daniel Fetterman stated his shopper was “really harassed” on account of his cooperation, citing a day in April 2024 when two strangers approached his spouse outdoors a financial institution and requested inappropriate questions.

“That was terrifying for him and his spouse,” he stated, although he famous that Uribe’s cooperation continued unabated.