Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin testifies at Menendez trial

NEWARK, N.J. - Former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin testified Wednesday as a prosecution witness against his old colleague, Robert Menendez, describing a meeting prosecutors call corrupt, but he termed a 'courtesy'' among lawmakers.

Menendez, D-N.J., is on trial for bribery, accused of taking gifts from the donor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, of trips on a private jet, a stay at a Paris hotel, and campaign donations.

In exchange, prosecutors charge, Menendez sought to help the doctor on several fronts, from getting visas for the doctor's girlfriends to trying to resolve a multimillion dollar billing dispute with the U.S. government.

Menendez and Melgen say they are longtime friends who enjoyed spending time together, and they were motivated by that friendship, not corruption.

On the witness stand, Harkin recalled a 2011 meeting he had with the two men in which the doctor pressed him for help in an $8.9 million dispute between Melgen and Medicare.

Much of Harkin's testimony seemed to undercut a central premise of the government's case against Menendez - the favors he did for Melgen were proof of criminal corruption, not the regular give-and-take of politics.

Harkin said he took the meeting 'as a senatorial courtesy” to Menendez. On cross examination, Harkin said it 'was quite common” for Senate colleagues to ask for meetings about health-care issues.

'If a senator asks you to meet with someone, you usually meet with them,” the 78-year-old Harkin said during his 30 minutes on the stand.

At the time of the meeting, which took place at Harkin's Senate office, the Iowa Democrat was chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Harkin said Melgen did most of the talking during the meeting centered on Melgen's practice of getting multiple doses of the eye medication Lucentis from a vial that was designed to have just one dose.

Melgen had billed Medicare for each dose, tripling and sometimes quadrupling his reimbursement from the program.

'I had been briefed on this before (the meeting),” Harkin said. 'I just basically listened . . . I don't remember his asking me to do anything.”

During his testimony, Harkin jokingly referred to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, commonly known as CMS, as 'C-Mess.”

Harkin said Melgen made a compelling argument about the waste involved in only allowing for a single dose of medicine to be extracted from a vial that holds multiple doses. Harkin added the billing aspect of the situation troubled him.

'He's treating three people and only paying for one vial,” Harkin said. 'That doesn't sound right to me, either.”

The defense attempted to show Menendez sought the meeting with Harkin to discuss a health-care policy that affected doctors other than just Melgen.

Harkin said he didn't meet again with Menendez or Melgen to discuss the issue.

The former senator's testimony underscores a key challenge for the Justice Department in the case: Some of the key prosecution witnesses have described their interactions with the defendants in fairly innocuous terms, even though the Justice Department has argued those acts add up to a years-long corruption scheme between the two men.

On his way out of the courtroom on Wednesday, Harkin stopped to give Menendez a firm handshake.

Prosecutors say after Melgen failed to get much traction with Harkin, Menendez took his concerns higher up the ladder of congressional power - to the then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and the person running the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Calling Reid as a witness against Menendez could pose similar challenges for prosecutors. Back in 2015, after he was interviewed by the FBI but before Menendez was indicted, Reid publicly praised the senator, saying Menendez 'has done a stellar job as chair of the [Foreign Relations] committee, and as far as I am concerned, he's been an outstanding senator.''

After Harkin testified Wednesday, one of his former staffers was called to the witness stand to discuss those conversations.

Jenelle Krishnamoorthy said she recommended Harkin, her boss, take no action on Melgen's behalf because she viewed his situation as an 'individual dispute” and not a 'policy matter.”

It was rare for Harkin to have meetings that were so narrow in scope, she testified.

Before the meeting, Krishnamoorthy said she contacted Sen. Bill Nelson's office and learned Nelson, a Florida Democrat, wasn't working on the Melgen case.

She said Menendez introduced Melgen at the 20-minute meeting as a friend and financial backer of the Democratic Party, someone who supported Harkin during his run for the presidency in 1992.

Harkin's staff followed up on the meeting by contacting Medicare for more information about the case, but because the case was in the appeals process, the inquiries ended there.

Harkin's office determined 'there was nothing more we could do or should do in this case,” Krishnamoorthy testified.

She said a Melgen lobbyist, who also attended the meeting, later requested Harkin write a letter to Medicare about the reimbursement dispute.

'I knew I wasn't going to recommend for Senator Harkin to write a letter,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, a former Medicare official said a Menendez staffer pressured his agency to intervene on Melgen's behalf during a July 2011 conference call, stating the issue involved a Menendez friend and was very important to him.

The staffer said 'bad medicine isn't illegal” and Medicare should allow Melgen to bill the way he did, Louis Jacques testified.

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Barrett reported from Washington.