What you should know
- New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker on Tuesday joined several political leaders and lawmakers calling for Sen. Bob Menendez’s resignation after he was indicted Friday along with his wife on federal bribery and corruption charges.
- In a statement, Booker, a Democrat, emphasized his respect for the work Sen. Menéndez has done as a public servant, saying, “I have witnessed his extraordinary work and unwavering work ethic.” But she stressed that the new federal indictment contains “shocking allegations of corruption and “contains concrete and disturbing details of irregularities” that she finds “difficult to reconcile with the person I know.”
- With these words, Booker, who is also considered one of New Jersey’s outstanding Democratic senators, said that while Senator Menéndez has the right to prove his innocence, his resignation is important out of respect for those who follow him.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker on Tuesday joined several political leaders and lawmakers calling for Sen. Bob Menendez’s resignation after he was indicted Friday along with his wife on federal bribery and corruption charges.
In a statement, Booker emphasized his respect for the work Senator Menéndez has done as a public servant, saying, “I have witnessed his extraordinary work and unwavering work ethic.” But she stressed that the new federal indictment “makes shocking allegations of corruption and specific and disturbing “Contains details of irregularities” that she finds “difficult to reconcile with the person I know.”
With these words, Booker, who is also considered one of the outstanding Democratic senators from New Jersey, said that although Senator Menéndez has the right to prove that he is not guilty, his resignation is important out of respect for those who follow him and not doing this is “a mistake”.
“As Senator Menéndez prepares for his legal defense, he has stated that he will not resign. Senator Menendez strongly maintains his innocence and therefore it is understandable that he considers his resignation to be patently unfair. But I think that’s a mistake,” said Senator Booker. “Resigning is not an admission of guilt, but rather a recognition that taking public office often requires enormous sacrifices at great personal cost. Senator Menendez made these sacrifices in “The past to serve.” And in this case he has to do it again. I believe that resignation is the best thing for those that Senator Menéndez has served his entire life.”
Booker added that he wasn’t surprised that Menendez was mounting a “vigorous defense,” but noted that officers should be held to a higher standard.
Carolina Ardila tells us in detail about the case.
Further demands for resignation
Among other officials who have called for Menéndez’s resignation is Gov. Phil Muprhy, who called the allegations “disturbing” on Friday and, while he respects the process to prove his innocence, called for his resignation.
“However, the alleged facts are so serious that they threaten Senator Menendez’s ability to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I call for his immediate resignation,” the governor said.
Further calls for his resignation came from Reps. Bill Pascrell, Andy Kim and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others.
Menendez responded defiantly to calls to resign from office, saying in a statement Friday evening: “I’m not going anywhere.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Menendez would step down as chairman of the Foreign Relations panel “until the matter is resolved,” according to Senate Democratic caucus rules, but Schumer stopped short of calling on him to resign.
“Bob Menendez was a dedicated public servant and always fought hard for the people of New Jersey. “You have the right to due process and a fair trial,” Democratic leader Schumer said in an emailed statement.
Menendez accused prosecutors of misrepresenting “the normal work of a congressional office” and said he would not allow his work in the Senate to be marred by “baseless allegations.”
Luis Alejandro Medina with the information.
What Senator Bob Menéndez said
Three days after Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife were indicted on federal bribery charges, the embattled New Jersey lawmaker spoke publicly for the first time Monday, remaining defiant and insisting he will remain in office. However, he did not explicitly address whether he would run for re-election in 2024.
The Democrat spoke Monday morning from Hudson County Community College in Union City, New Jersey. The senator began his political career as mayor in this city in 1986.
“I recognize the seriousness of this moment and know that this will be my biggest fight to date, but as I have said throughout the trial, I believe that when all the facts are presented, I will not only be exonerated, but I will be exonerated “I will continue to be a federal senator from New Jersey,” he said during the conference.
“Those who rushed to convict me did so on the basis of a limited set of facts presented by the prosecution. Remember that prosecutors sometimes make mistakes. Instead of waiting for all the facts to be revealed, others condemn me because they see an “opportunity politics. I just ask that you pause and allow all the facts to be presented,” he added.
During the conference, the senator also highlighted his history as a public servant and what he has achieved in 50 years in this profession. The Democrat praised his tough stance against Egypt when it comes to human rights violations and abuses, as well as what he has done to bring federal money into his state.
“On Friday, the Southern District of New York filed charges against me. These allegations are serious, but the allegations made against me are just that, allegations. Anyone who has known me in my 50 years of public service knows that this is what I have always done. “I fought for what was right. My work has always focused on what I learned as the son of Cuban refugees. I worked to achieve all my successes even though I was underestimated,” he said at the start of the conference.
He left without answering questions and did not respond to the group of journalists who shouted questions about the alleged gifts he had received.
The senator will prove that innocence on Wednesday when he appears before a federal judge in Manhattan.
Here is the press conference.
What the accusation says
According to the indictment unsealed Friday by the District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Democratic senator and his wife received cash, gold bars, mortgage payments, compensation for substandard work or no-shows, a luxury vehicle and other valuable items.
The accusation, the second in eight years against the 69-year-old senator, alleges an unlawful conflation of Menendez’s commitments to advancing American priorities and his private interest in cultivating relationships with wealthy businessmen.
The senator has hired Abbe Lowell, the same attorney who is defending Hunter Biden against his tax and firearms charges, to represent him in his federal bribery case, Law360 first reported and a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office confirmed in the Southern District of New York.
Prosecutors were investigating whether a businessman facing more than a dozen counts of bank fraud gave gold bars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state’s top senator and his wife. Investigators also looked for connections and possible gifts he received from a halal meat company that later won an exclusive government contract in Egypt.
The investigation wants to know whether Menendez, a Democrat, offered to contact the Justice Department to help Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and former bank president accused of banking crimes. Criminal investigators from the FBI and IRS wanted to investigate whether Daibes or his associates had given gold bars worth up to $400,000 to the senator’s wife.
A previous indictment against Menendez based on various allegations ended in a deadlocked jury in 2017.
Luis Alejandro Medina informs us.
WHAT THE EXHIBITS REVEAL
Officers who searched Menendez’s home last year found more than $100,000 worth of gold bars and more than $480,000 worth of cash, much of it hidden in closets, clothing and a safe, prosecutors said.
Photos from the indictment show cash stuffed into envelopes inside jackets with Menendez’s name on them. Investigators also said they found a Google search Menendez conducted on the value of a “kilo of gold” and the DNA of a man who prosecutors say bribed him with an envelope full of thousands of dollars.
A series of allegations allege that Menendez directly interfered in criminal investigations, including pushing for the appointment of a federal prosecutor in New Jersey who he believed could be influenced in a criminal case against a businessman and associate of the senator.
Prosecutors say he also tried to use his position of power to interfere in a separate criminal investigation by the New Jersey attorney general’s office.
Other allegations include repeated actions by Menendez on behalf of Egypt even as the U.S. government had doubts about the country’s human rights record, prompting Congress to impose aid restrictions in recent years. His efforts included writing a letter to his fellow senators urging them to lift the suspension of $300 million in aid to Egypt, a major recipient of U.S. government support, as well as sharing nonpublic information on military matters to Egyptian officials, he said. the reproach.
THE THREE SUPPOSED BUSINESS PARTNERS
Prosecutors allege Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three business partners, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes. He used his influence to push for the appointment of Philip Sellinger as federal prosecutor because he believed he could influence Sellinger to protect Daibes, a longtime friend and prominent New Jersey developer who is facing criminal charges, they said.
Sellinger, who currently holds the position, has not been charged with any crime.
Daibes pleaded guilty to bank fraud last year and is scheduled to be sentenced in October. His agreement stipulates that he only has to serve a suspended sentence in this case.
The White House declined to comment on the allegations, including Biden’s nomination of Sellinger.
Requests for comment from lawyers for Daibes and Uribe were not immediately returned. A spokesman for Hana, Steven Goldberg, said the allegations were still being investigated but that the charges were “completely without merit.”
In April 2020, shortly after a meeting with an Egyptian official, Menendez reportedly pressured then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to increase U.S. involvement in stalled negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the construction of a dam on the Nile, which represents an important foreign policy for Egypt.
After Menéndez called a government official about an investigation into a Uribe associate, Uribe and Hana also worked to get the senator’s wife a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
The indictment states that after the transaction was completed, Nadine Menendez texted her husband with a heart emoji: “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes.”
PREVIOUS CHARGE OF MENÉNDEZ
According to the Senate Historical Office, Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to be impeached for two unrelated crimes. His trial on charges that he pressured government officials to resolve a matter involving a Florida ophthalmologist who showered him with gifts and campaign contributions ended with a deadlocked jury.
He faces re-election next year to extend his three-decade career in Washington, D.C., while Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.
When Menendez was first indicted, he was accused of using his political influence to pressure government officials to settle a Medicare billing dispute on behalf of a friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen, settled by securing visas for the doctor’s girlfriends and helping to protect one. As part of the contract, the doctor was required to provide port inspection equipment to the Dominican Republic.
Menendez has always maintained he is not guilty, and prosecutors dropped the case after a jury deadlocked on bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges in November 2017 and a judge dismissed some charges.
Menéndez, the son of Cuban immigrants, has held public office continuously since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union City, New Jersey. He was a state legislator and spent 14 years in the United States House of Representatives.
In 2006, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor.
The new charges follow a year-long investigation that examined, among other things, how Hana company IS EG Halal was able to obtain exclusive permission from the Egyptian government to certify that meat imported into that country meets Islamic dietary requirements.
The designation surprised American agricultural officials. Several other companies had previously conducted such certification, but Egyptian agriculture officials overruled them in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no experience in the field.
Prosecutors say Menendez then pressured a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to stop using Hana’s company as the sole halal certifier. Hana’s company was used to send bribes to a company founded by Menendez’s wife called Strategic International Business Consultants, LLC, prosecutors allege.
Senate disclosure forms amended by Menendez in March 2022 show that Nadine Menendez’s assets included gold bars valued between $100,000 and $250,000. According to the forms, between April and June 2022, the couple cashed out at least a portion of their precious metal holdings, selling gold bars worth between $200,000 and $400,000 while retaining at least $250,000.