Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in jail for buying and selling bribes for political favors.
Federal prosecutors levied allegations of bribery, extortion and appearing as a international agent towards Menendez, then-chair of the highly effective Senate Overseas Relations Committee, in fall 2023.
Final summer time, he grew to become the primary public official ever convicted of appearing as a international agent whereas in workplace.
A New York jury discovered the senator and his spouse, Nadine, accepted tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in money, gold bars and luxurious automobiles from three New Jersey businessmen.
In change, Menendez protected the halal meat certification monopoly of one of many businessmen, Wael Hana, in change for profitable kickbacks, and intervened in separate legal circumstances involving the opposite two males, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.
Earlier than the decide handed down his sentence Wednesday, Menendez, 71, tearfully requested for leniency, citing his a long time of public service.
“You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence,” the ex-senator informed U.S. District Decide Sidney H. Stein, in accordance with The Related Press.
Menendez’s attorneys argued that the case made him a “national punchline,” incomes him the nickname “gold bar Bob,” which ought to function punishment in its personal proper. However the decide was not satisfied.
“You were successful; powerful. You stood at the apex of our political system,” Stein mentioned, in accordance with the AP. ”Someplace alongside the way in which, and I don’t know when it was, you misplaced your manner, and dealing for the general public good grew to become working in your good.”
Menendez was ordered to report back to jail by June 6. Exterior the courthouse following his sentencing, he railed towards the justice system and decried his case as a “political prosecution.”
“President Trump was right,” Menendez mentioned, evoking Trump’s personal authorized battles in New York. “This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
Hana was additionally sentenced Wednesday to simply greater than eight years in jail, and Daibes to a seven-year jail time period.
Uribe, who pleaded responsible earlier than dealing with trial, is about to be sentenced in June. Nadine Menendez’s trial has been postponed a number of instances because of ongoing breast most cancers remedy and is now scheduled to start in March.
Because the highly effective chair of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, Menendez signed off on a number of multimillion-dollar weapons gross sales to Egypt, which he repeatedly requested his spouse to relay to the businessmen, who then handed on the intel to Egyptian officers, between 2018 and 2022.
Federal prosecutors sought a 15-year jail time period for Menendez, whose conduct they mentioned constituted an “extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust.”
“The defendants’ crimes amount to an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the legislative branch, to corrupt the nation’s core sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement,” the federal government wrote in its sentencing memorandum.
Nonetheless, the advice is a downward departure from federal sentencing tips, which advised a 24-to-30-year jail time period. Prosecutors mentioned the request for a decrease — albeit nonetheless vital — sentence was “based principally” on Menendez’s age.
The sentencing got here on the heels of the decide’s resolution to not toss Menendez’s corruption conviction or grant a brand new trial, regardless of jurors getting access to trial displays with out correct redactions throughout their deliberations.
Menendez’s legal professional beforehand requested a jail time period of not more than two years, however after the ex-senator’s co-defendants have been sentenced to seven years and eight years, respectively, he modified his request to a most of eight years.
Although the decide decided there was an “infinitesimal chance” the jurors even seen the mistakenly despatched supplies, the previous senator has repeatedly claimed prosecutorial misconduct and vowed to enchantment.
The Related Press contributed.
Up to date at 4:35 pm EST
