Menendez Indicted
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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/31/menendez-usda-new-jersey-00161121
In May 2019, a senior official at the USDA was told by his then-chief-of-staff that Sen. Bob Menendez would call his personal cell phone in around an hour.
The agriculture official, Ted McKinney, had been trying to get Egyptian officials to reverse their decision to grant a new company a monopoly certifying halal meat exported to that country. That decision, he recalled from the witness stand of Menendez’s corruption trial Friday, was “very unusual” and could hurt American beef interests.
McKinney said that he would “never forget the words” Menendez told him during the brief call: “Stop interfering with my constituent.”
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They don't seem to think it applies to the president, and perhaps it does not by deliberate omission. Not sure how it would apply to his wife's texts.
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Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., filed Monday to run for re-election as an independent, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his plans.
NBC News had reported that Menendez had gathered enough signatures to run as an independent for another term in the Senate as he faces a trial on federal bribery charges. He filed one day before the state's deadline for independent candidates, allowing him to collect fewer signatures and still make the ballot; the deadline to run as a Democrat has long passed.
The New Jersey Globe first reported that Menendez planned to file Monday. In the end, he filed just over 2,000 signatures, a source told NBC News.
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Background:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/22/menendez-corruption-trial-prosecutors-00159557
Menendez’s attorneys are arguing that some of the most damning evidence against him cannot be shown to jurors without violating lawmakers’ constitutional “speech or debate” privileges. Now prosecutors worry a pending ruling by Judge Sidney Stein could create a class of “super citizens” in Congress who are above the law.
Stein is considering whether jurors can see text messages and phone records that prosecutors say will show Egyptian officials were “frantic about not getting their money’s worth” and Menendez’s wife boasted about her husband’s influence over arms sales.
Prosecutors are already having to dance around some of Menendez’s Senate actions because of the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. It grants a form of immunity to lawmakers that is mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of lawmakers, their aides or other congressional officials.
@George-K said in Menendez Indicted:
Background:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/22/menendez-corruption-trial-prosecutors-00159557
Menendez’s attorneys are arguing that some of the most damning evidence against him cannot be shown to jurors without violating lawmakers’ constitutional “speech or debate” privileges. Now prosecutors worry a pending ruling by Judge Sidney Stein could create a class of “super citizens” in Congress who are above the law.
Stein is considering whether jurors can see text messages and phone records that prosecutors say will show Egyptian officials were “frantic about not getting their money’s worth” and Menendez’s wife boasted about her husband’s influence over arms sales.
Prosecutors are already having to dance around some of Menendez’s Senate actions because of the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. It grants a form of immunity to lawmakers that is mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of lawmakers, their aides or other congressional officials.
Have robe, will travel.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/16/sen-bob-menendez-found-guilty-in-corruption-trial-00168659
Sen. Bob Menendez on Tuesday was found guilty in his corruption trial, a historic verdict marking a dramatic downfall for New Jersey’s senior senator who was one of the most influential people in Washington D.C.
The 12-member jury found Menendez guilty on all 16 counts after a two-month trial on charges that all but ended his political career. Federal prosecutors accused Menendez of bribery, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, obstruction of justice, extortion and conspiring to commit those crimes.
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Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt — crimes his lawyer said he’s been mocked for as “Gold Bar Bob.”
The judge delivered the sentence after Menendez tearfully addressed the court, saying he’d lost everything he cared about, except his family. The Democrat resigned last year after becoming one of only a handful of U.S. senators ever convicted while in office.
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The ex-senator was convicted of selling his once-considerable clout for bribes worth a fortune. FBI agents who searched his house found $480,000, some of it stuffed inside boots and pockets of clothing, and gold bars worth an estimated $150,000.
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Menendez, 71, portrayed himself to the judge as a sympathetic figure, stressing his decades of public service and declaring that he was chastened by the experience. Afterward, talking to reporters with TV cameras and microphones outside, he turned defiant.
“I am innocent,” he proclaimed, vowing to appeal.
