Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in jail for promoting his once-considerable clout in Washington for gold bars, a luxurious automobile and lots of of hundreds of {dollars} in money bribes.
Prosecutors have requested a federal decide to provide the Democrat 15 years behind bars for crimes that embrace performing as an agent of the Egyptian authorities.
Menendez’s attorneys mentioned he deserved lower than two years in jail, citing his a long time of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to develop into “the epitome of the American Dream.”
Within the morning, Choose Sidney H. Stein signaled {that a} stiffer penalty was seemingly on the best way,
He gave substantial jail phrases to 2 New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator. Fred Daibes, an actual property developer, received seven years and a $1.75 million high quality. Wael Hana, an entrepreneur, received eight years a $1.25 million high quality and was ordered to forfeit $125,000.
Previous to the announcement of his sentence, Daibes, 67, tearfully informed Stein the jury verdict had left him “borderline suicidal,” and requested leniency in order that he may look after his 30-year-old autistic son.
Hana informed the decide, “I’m an harmless man.”
“I by no means bribed Senator Menendez or requested his workplace for affect.”
The decide, although, mentioned the jury’s verdict was “very, very substantial.”
Stein was scheduled to condemn Menendez within the afternoon. A 3rd businessman pleaded responsible and testified in opposition to Menendez at a trial final yr.
One of many businessmen convicted of bribing NJ Sen. Bob Menendez with money and gold bars is in plea talks in a separate financial institution fraud case. An lawyer for Fred Daibes informed a federal decide right now that he hopes to have a plea deal finished by August to keep away from a trial on financial institution fraud associated counts.
THE BREAKDOWN: WHAT WAS THE FORMER SENATOR CONVICTED OF?
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction final yr, although he misplaced a lot of his energy in fall 2023 when the costs in opposition to him had been revealed and he was pressured to give up his highly effective put up as chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee.
The trial traced Menendez’s dealings with Egyptian officers and his quest to assist three males who showered him with profitable presents discovered throughout a 2022 raid on the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, house he shared along with his spouse, Nadine.
FBI brokers who searched the home discovered $480,000 in money, a few of it stuffed inside boots and the pockets of clothes hung within the couple’s closets. In addition they seized gold bars price an estimated $150,000.
Prosecutors mentioned Menendez had “put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” together with by serving Egypt’s pursuits as he labored to guard a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian authorities.
Amongst different issues, Menendez supplied Egyptian officers with details about the workers on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to carry a maintain on $300 million in navy help to Egypt.
Prosecutors mentioned that for different bribes, Menendez tried to steer a federal prosecutor in New Jersey to go simple on Daibes, a politically influential actual property developer accused of financial institution fraud.
And on the trial, one other businessman, Jose Uribe, testified that he helped Nadine Menendez get a Mercedes-Benz convertible after the senator sought to stress state prosecutors to drop prison probes of his associates.
The jury’s verdict adopted a nine-week trial through which prosecutors mentioned the Democrat abused the facility of his workplace to guard allies from prison investigations and enrich associates, together with his spouse, via acts that included assembly with Egyptian intelligence officers and serving to that nation entry thousands and thousands of {dollars} in U.S. navy help.
Menendez has insisted that he’s harmless of any crime, saying repeatedly that his interactions with Egyptian officers had been regular for the top of the Overseas Relations Committee, and that he all the time put American pursuits first. He denied taking any bribes and mentioned the gold bars belonged to his spouse.
Nadine Menendez faces trial in March on most of the identical costs as her husband after spending the final yr battling breast most cancers.
Prosecutors mentioned in a courtroom submitting that lengthy jail phrases are a warranted punishment “for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust.”
“The defendants engaged, for years, in a corruption and international affect scheme of beautiful brazenness, breadth, and length, leading to exceptionally grave abuses of energy on the highest ranges of the Legislative Department of america Authorities,” they wrote.
Menendez’s attorneys, in a presentence submission, mentioned he had already suffered vastly.
“Unsurprisingly, Senator Menendez’s conviction has rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit,” his attorneys wrote. “Bob is now 71, along with his long-built repute in tatters. He has suffered monetary {and professional} break.”
New Jersey’s senior senator was discovered responsible of all 16 counts he confronted within the corruption trial, convicted of bribery, conspiracy, extortion, obstruction of justice and performing as a international agent — the latter of which prosecutors could have been most critical. The 2 co-defendants had been additionally discovered responsible. NBC New York’s Jonathan Diesnt and Erica Byfield report.
THE AFTERMATH OF HIS CONVICTION
Menendez’s regulation license has been suspended and can be revoked if his conviction stands. His state pension is in jeopardy. His identify has already been stripped from an elementary college in New Jersey.
“His once broad circle of friends and political allies have largely disappeared,” his attorneys mentioned. “While all defendants suffer inevitable personal and professional consequences if convicted of serious federal crimes, Senator Menendez in many important respects has already been punished relatively more harshly due to his position.”
In courtroom papers, the attorneys described how Menendez devoted a lot of his life to his nation and his neighborhood after he was scarred by the early lack of his father, who killed himself when Menendez was 23 after he was unable to repay playing money owed.
They described a 50-year historical past of public service in heroic phrases, tracing a profession through which Menendez was mayor of Union Metropolis, New Jersey, a state lawmaker, a member of the U.S. Home after which a senator from 2006 to 2024.
But he additionally had the excellence of being the one U.S. senator indicted twice.
In 2015, he was charged with promoting his affect to a rich Florida eye physician and entrepreneur who prosecutors mentioned lavished him with luxurious holidays and marketing campaign contributions. However the jury in that case could not attain a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors dropped the case fairly than put him on trial once more.
