September 27, 2023
In 2017, Democratic New Jersey senator Bob Menendez endured a three-month trial for eighteen counts of alleged corruption. The procedure ended in a mistrial. Ten jurors found Menendez guilty with two dissenting. Prosecutors can retry defendants in trials that result in a hung jury. The Justice Department opted not to retry Menendez.
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Does the prosecution have a sufficient case this time to avoid another mistrial, or is the evidence of corruption weak because this is just another presidential vendetta against Menendez for disagreeing with the Democratic policy agenda?
Per the Washington Post, in that trial prosecutors said Menendez took gifts from Doctor Salomon Melgen, including a luxury hotel stay, private jet flights, and campaign donations, in exchange for which he tried to help Melgen get U.S. visas for his girlfriends, intervened in the doctor’s $8.9 million billing dispute with Medicare (Melgen was subsequently found guilty), and assisted with a port security contract of the doctor’s in the Dominican Republic.
Juror Ed Norris, a 49-year-old equipment operator from Morris County, said that the evidence was mostly emails and that he “didn’t see a smoking gun.’’ “I don’t think the government proved anything,’’ Norris said. “I didn’t see anything bad that he did.’’
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Menendez and Melgen were longtime friends. Both defendants denied any wrongdoing, arguing the gifts were merely evidence of their close friendship.
What does a smoking gun in a case like this look like? Per WAPO, Barbara Van Gelder, a lawyer with Cozen O’Conner, “Once you blur business with friendship, it’s very hard to ask the jury to untangle that. . . The jury is looking for a concrete quid pro quo, not just a plausible quid pro quo.’’
Although the Senate Ethics Committee admonished Senator Menendez, he hung on to his seat as Chair of Foreign Relations Committee (FRC). In April 2018, the Committee stated that Menendez “knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from Dr. Melgen without obtaining required Committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law. Additionally, while accepting these gifts, you used your position as a Member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgen’s personal and business interests.”
This time, based on corruption allegations alone, Senator Menendez has stepped down from the FRC. He was found guilty of ethics violations and will be again, in all likelihood. Under the law Menendez merits a presumption of innocence until proven guilty of a felony in a court of law.
Are the current bribery charges just another vendetta like the corruption charges brought by the Obama Justice Department in 2017. At the time, Andrew McCarthy asserted that the original reason for the charges are that Menendez had angered President Obama, who as payback went after him through the Justice Department. Menendez has also not backed Biden’s every policy.
As in the first case, there are rumblings that the Biden administration is pursuing corruption charges motivated by a vendetta against Menendez. Which makes some sense if you consider the Constitution does not prohibit felons from holding elected federal office. Such an action would serve to motivate compliance with the party line without losing a coveted Senate vote. The Democrats can’t afford to lose his vote.
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All the same, Menendez could face impeachment, which would remove him from office.
NBC News 4 has reported “…criminal investigators are attempting to determine if Menendez or his wife had taken up to $400,000 worth of gold bars from Fred Daibes, a New Jersey developer and former bank chairman, or his associates in a swap for Menendez reaching out to the Justice Department to aid the ‘admitted felon’ accused of banking crimes.”
The bribery charge against Menendez, his wife, and the three New Jersey businessmen alleges that the group schemed to pay Menendez in exchange for political favors.
The Hill is reporting that he and his wife allegedly accepted bribes from a group of New Jersey businessmen on behalf of interests in Egypt, totaling over $600,000. Prosecutors allege that the senator and his wife accepted cash, gold bars and a luxury car in return for assisting the businessmen. Nearly $500,000 in cash and more than $100,000 in gold were found at Menendez’s home in a raid last year, allegedly payment for the bribes.
Additionally, Menendez “allegedly took bribes from interests in Egypt, and in exchange advocated for issues important to Egypt in Congress. That includes pressuring the State Department to encourage the construction of a dam considered important to Egyptian interests and advocating on behalf of the Egyptian military in encouraging U.S. arms deals.”
Menendez also “set up a fraudulent business — Strategic International Business Consultants, LLC — to facilitate the bribes, prosecutors allege, as well as used his influence to protect a business monopoly of a second business related to Egyptian interests and the businessmen.”
The Hill further reports that “according to prosecutors, Menendez ‘directly and indirectly, would and did corruptly demand, seek, receive, accept, and agree to receive and accept something of value personally and for another person and entity, in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act and for being induced to do an act and omit to do an act in violation of his official duty.’”
Furthermore, prosecutors allege that Menendez, et al “met multiple times, and communicated via text through his wife. Menendez also pressured New Jersey prosecutors to interrupt the prosecutions of multiple federal and state criminal cases.”
These are serious allegations that could have negative consequences for Democrat political aspirations in 2024. More importantly, if the allegations are determined to be true by a criminal court of law, then justice needs to be served.
Ed Norris wanted to see a smoking gun in the first trial. If jurors need a smoking gun to convict now, then it is hoped that the prosecution can present themw ith one.
Image: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
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