Jose Uribe, a former New Jersey insurance broker charged in what prosecutors have described as a broad bribery scheme involving Senator Robert Menendez, pleaded guilty on Friday in Manhattan.
Mr. Uribe had been accused of providing Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife, with a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for Mr. Menendez’s efforts to intercede in an insurance fraud investigation in New Jersey.
As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Uribe also agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors in their investigation, according to a formal plea agreement signed by Mr. Uribe, his lawyer and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Uribe is expected to “truthfully and completely disclose all information with respect to the activities of himself and others concerning all matters about which this office inquires of him,” the agreement states.
Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, his wife and two other businessmen have pleaded not guilty and are facing trial in May.
Mr. Uribe admitted providing the car “with the intent to influence an official act” as he pleaded guilty to seven counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
The car, according to prosecutors, was one of the first bribes provided to the senator and Ms. Menendez during a yearslong conspiracy. They have also been accused in three successive indictments with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars and bars of gold bullion in exchange for the senator’s willingness to provide political favors and to help the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
The Mercedes replaced a vehicle that police records show Ms. Menendez was driving in December 2018 when she struck and killed a pedestrian, Richard Koop, in Bogota, N.J. Ms. Menendez, who married Mr. Menendez in 2020, was dating the senator at the time of the crash.
She was not tested for drugs or alcohol and was not charged with wrongdoing.
Months later, after obtaining the new car from Mr. Uribe, she sent a text message to Mr. Menendez.
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie,” she wrote, according to the indictment. “We are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes.”
The car was given in exchange for Mr. Menendez’s efforts to disrupt a New Jersey insurance fraud case involving two of Mr. Uribe’s associates, according to prosecutors.
“The deal is to kill and stop all investigation,” Mr. Uribe wrote in a message to another defendant, according to the indictment.
In exchange for the $60,0000 car, prosecutors said, Mr. Menendez attempted to use “advice and pressure” to influence a top official in the New Jersey attorney general’s office — during a phone call and an in-person meeting.
Mr. Menendez’s lawyers have disputed the allegations and said that information prosecutors have gathered during the investigation that was favorable to the senator has been ignored. They have also argued that because the senator had no authority over the state prosecutor, any attempts to pressure the official could not — even if they happened — be considered official acts, the threshold needed to prove public corruption.
The judge, Sidney H. Stein of Federal District Court, set Mr. Uribe’s sentencing for June 14, which means it could come during the trial of Mr. Menendez and his three remaining co-defendants, which is scheduled to start on May 6.
Mr. Uribe entered his guilty plea Friday morning in an unannounced proceeding before Judge Stein.
Mr. Uribe’s lawyer, Daniel J. Fetterman, declined to comment, as did Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Ms. Menendez’s lawyers declined to comment.
Lawyers for Mr. Menendez have argued that warrants permitting searches of the couple’s home and electronic devices were overbroad and granted by magistrate judges who were misled by prosecutors.
They have asked Judge Stein to rule that items and information found during the searches are inadmissible. Mr. Menendez’s lawyers, who had no immediate comment about Mr. Uribe’s guilty plea, have also asked the judge to dismiss the indictment, saying overzealous prosecutors were criminalizing normal legislative activity and flouting constitutional protections afforded to members of Congress.