Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (center) of New Jersey and his wife Nadine Menendez (right) arrive at the federal courthouse in New York, Sept. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File); (left inset) the gold bars evidence (U.S. Attorney’s Office for SDNY)
Sen. Bob Menendez, a longtime New Jersey Democrat who once escaped corruption charges, resumed chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and enjoyed membership on banking and finance committees, was convicted of more than a dozen crimes Tuesday in New York for committing brazen bribery and fraud conspiracies on America’s dime.
The fourth superseding indictment in the case against Menendez charged him with 16 crimes, each of which a jury on Tuesday found him guilty of committing from 2018 to 2023.
Those offenses include conspiracies to commit bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, acting as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice, crimes that could put the 70-year-old in prison for the rest of his days (technically, he faces up to 222 years of prison when adding up the maximums, but while that will not come to pass, he still faces decades behind bars).
Jurors in Manhattan also convicted two of Menendez’s charged co-conspirators, Wael Hana, 40, and Fred Dabies, 66, New Jersey businessmen with ties to Egypt and Qatar.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, still faces an indictment charging her with playing a prominent role in the commission of the offenses, but breast cancer surgery led to a postponement.
The Mercedes-Benz (U.S. Attorney’s Office for SDNY)
Jose Uribe, another New Jersey businessman, decided to plead guilty in the corruption case back in March, reportedly telling the judge that he bought Nadine Menendez a Mercedes-Benz in 2019 — the year after she killed a pedestrian in a car crash — with the understanding that her husband would use “his power and influence as a United States senator to get a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations related to one of [his] associates.”
“Between 2018 and 2022, MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ agreed to and did accept hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bribes from HANA, DAIBES, and URIBE. These bribes included gold, cash, a luxury convertible, payments toward NADINE MENENDEZ’s home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job for NADINE MENENDEZ, home furnishings, and other things of value,” prosecutors alleged when announcing the charges in September 2023. “In June 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at the New Jersey home of MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ. During that search, the FBI found many of the fruits of this bribery scheme, including cash, gold, the luxury convertible, and home furnishings. Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe — was discovered in the home, as well as over $70,000 in cash in NADINE MENENDEZ’s safe deposit box, which was also searched pursuant to a separate search warrant.”
In brief remarks after Menendez’s numerous felony convictions, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams hammered the disgraced senator for his “shocking levels of corruption” in office to benefit himself, his charged co-conspirators, and foreign powers Egypt and Qatar.
“Moments ago, a jury in this courthouse convicted Senator Robert Menendez of corruption and national security offenses. This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption — hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz. This wasn’t politics as usual, this was politics for profit,” Williams said. “And now that a jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end.”
“His years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end.”
New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks after Sen. Bob Menendez is found guilty on all counts in corruption trial. pic.twitter.com/cdrqyr6kbi
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 16, 2024
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, promptly reacted to the guilty verdicts by demanding Menendez’s resignation.
In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 16, 2024
Sen. Menendez, for his part, reacted to his convictions by calling himself a “patriot,” expressing his deep disappointment in the verdicts, and saying he has “every faith” of a successful appeal.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) following a guilty verdict on all 16 counts in his federal bribery and corruption trial “I have never violated my public oath. I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never ever been a foreign agent.” pic.twitter.com/GW0RK5g2cc
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 16, 2024
“I have never violated my public oath. I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never ever been a foreign agent,” Mendendez said, with emphasis on the word never. “The decision rendered by the jury today could put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.”
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