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| New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez and wife Nadine served in bribery case. |
Years of slipping through the FBI finally caught up with New Jersey senator Bob Menendez. The Democratic senator was under the feds radar for years.
Finally, he is getting served for his criminal behavior.
The suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York announced the indictment of Menendez on charges of bribery “in connection with three New Jersey businessmen.” His wife, Nadine Menendez, is also going to be indicted on the same charges.
The New York Times reports that the federal corruption charge alleges that Menendez entered into a scheme with his wife and three others. Also indicted are New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes; Wael Hana, founder of a New Jersey halal meat inspection business and a friend of Mrs. Menendez; and New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe.
Menendez has been under federal investigation for his ties to Daibes, who gifted Menendez and his wife with $400,000 worth of gold bars, allegedly in exchange for help with federal bank fraud charges. That “help” allegedly included Menendez reaching out to the U.S. Justice Department in connection to the case. The senator disclosed the gift in 2020, but only after the federal investigation began.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, and James Smith, assistant director for the FBI field office in New York, will hold a press conference at 11:00 a.m. ET to provide more information about the indictments.
Expect Democrats to call for his resignation. Watch Republicans lick their chops.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer and Chris Christie are the only viable Republicans to take on Menendez.
If he does resign, Gov. Phil Murphy can appoint Lt. Gov. Tashesa Way to fill the term and ask her to run for a full term. It would make her the first Black woman senator serving with the Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), the state's first Black U.S. senator.
Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants had escaped scandals in the past. He was indicted on bribery in 2015 when he tried to help a Miami businessman sneak his mistresses into the U.S. and got a good kickback. There was a mistrial and the charges were eventually dropped soon after. He was accused of messing with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. That story did not stand but was lodged against him for years.
The alleged bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and "other things of value."
Menendez' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors say that Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, provided sensitive U.S. government information to Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, that "secretly aided the Government of Egypt." The indictment states that Menendez improperly pressured an official at the Department of Agriculture to protect a business monopoly granted to Hana by the Egyptian government. Hana then allegedly kicked back profits from his monopoly to Menendez.
The senator is also accused of using his office to disrupt New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin's investigation into Uribe and his associates. The indictment further alleges that Menendez influenced President Biden to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez believed could be swayed against prosecuting his associate Daibes.
Menendez has supported the nomination of U.S. Attorney Phillip Sellinger. Sellinger had previously acted as a fundraiser for Menendez's campaign. However, Sellinger had recused himself from the Daibes prosecution, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson told NBC News 4.
Menendez disclosed that his family had accepted gold bars in 2020. Daibes encountered bank fraud charges that could have netted him up to a decade in prison for lying about a nearly $2 million loan from Mariner's Bank, where Daibes served as chairman.
Last year, however, New Jersey's U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to let Daibes plead guilty to one count and serve probation. They said Daibes had repaid the loan.
In April, Menendez established a legal defense fund to help pay for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees relating to the federal criminal probe.
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