EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). Those who know the story well, and we have spoken to some, tell us that the “weak link” in the Senator’s life was the unstoppable businesswoman Nadine… “Cherchez la femme,” as the proverbial saying goes. As for the Senator’s mistakes, there are many, no doubt. This was not the first time he got involved with the wrong side of the law. To be fair, we have to ask a question: Is there ANYONE, ANY POLITICIAN, in the DC Swamp that is not on the take? Nobody is the correct answer. But, first, they all know how to hide it legally – and plenty of perfectly legal ways exist. They do not keep cash and gold bars in their home. Second, they try to avoid any shady business with Egypt, only with Israel… Please allow me to stop here…
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Sen. Bob Menendez faces decades in prison as he’s convicted of sprawling gold bar bribery scheme
He’s a newly minted felon.
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez was found guilty Tuesday of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes — including 1-kilogram gold bars — in exchange for using his powerful post to enrich and protect three businessmen and the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
Menendez, 70, wearing a blue suit and pink tie, sat with his head bowed at the defense table and kept a poker face while the jury forewoman read the word “guilty” 18 times, for each count that he and his two co-defendants faced.
The bombshell verdict was delivered in Manhattan federal court after about 12½ hours of deliberations spread over three days. It capped a nine-week trial that revealed how the senator leveraged his position to cater to the whims of men who showered him and his wife with gold, cash and gifts including a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
“This wasn’t politics as usual. This was politics for profit,” US Attorney Damian Williams told reporters outside court following the verdict.
Menendez’s conviction immediately added fuel to calls for the three-term senator — who has proclaimed his innocence and claimed he was targeted because he’s a prominent Latino — to resign from Congress.
Within an hour of the decision, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) demanded Menendez’s resignation, saying: “In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign.”
Menendez’s indictment last September took a political toll, and led to him stepping down from his post as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was trounced in June’s Democratic primary by Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and has announced plans to run in November’s general election as an independent candidate instead.
“I’m deeply, deeply disappointed by the jury’s decision. I have every faith that the law and the facts are not sustained with that decision, and that we will be successful upon appeal,” Menendez said outside court, while insisting “I have never violated my public oath.”
He ignored questions from reporters about whether he would step down.
Menendez faces what could amount to a life sentence — with some of the counts carrying a possible term of up to 20 years behind bars — when he learns his fate Oct. 29.
The trial was his second time facing federal corruption charges.
An earlier case in which the senator was charged by New Jersey federal prosecutors with accepting lavish bribes — including all-expense-paid vacations and private flights — in exchange for doling out favors to a Palm Beach doctor ended in a mistrial in 2017.
The charges a jury of 12 New Yorkers convicted him of in the Manhattan case included bribery, extortion, obstructing justice and acting as an illegal foreign agent.
“Mr. Menendez sold the power of his office,” prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told jurors in the government’s closing statement.
“It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington,” Monteleoni said. “It wasn’t enough for him to be entrusted by the public with the power to approve billions of dollars of US military aid to foreign countries.
“Robert Menendez wanted all that power — but he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife.”
His attorneys tried to poke holes in the government’s case by arguing that Menendez’s “beautiful, tall” wife Nadine had “kept him in the dark” about what she was asking co-defendants Wael Hana, 40, and Fred Daibes, 66, to give her.
But Manhattan federal prosecutors detailed a dizzying array of actions Menendez took between 2018 and 2022 on behalf of his cronies, including a disgraced New Jersey insurance broker who bought Nadine a new Mercedes-Benz C-300 in exchange for help scuttling state criminal probes.
“I saved your ass, not once but twice,” the Garden State pol bragged to Jose Uribe — who pleaded guilty and flipped on Menendez — during an August 2020 dinner at the North Jersey restaurant Segovia, Uribe testified.
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” Nadine Menendez texted her husband after receiving the first payment toward the new car, using the French phrase for “love of my life.” She added a heart emoji at the end of the message.
Uribe told Menendez the name of a man being probed by state authorities, and the morning after, Menendez pressured New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to speak about the active criminal probe, Grewal testified.
“Whoa, that was gross,” Grewal’s deputy said after the September 2019 meeting in the senator’s Newark office, trial testimony revealed.
Hana, a businessman, also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash and gold to the senator while Menendez did favors for Egypt including ghostwriting a letter asking the US to unfreeze $300 million in military aid that had been held up due to human rights concerns, prosecutors said.
Menendez also leaned on an Agriculture Department official to protect Hana’s lucrative monopoly on approving halal meat exports to Egypt, evidence revealed.
In exchange, Hana gave Nadine Menendez a no-show job worth $120,000 per year, prosecutors said.
“What else can the love of my life do for you?” Nadine told an Egyptian official while the senator smoked cigars and swigged red wine during a May 2019 meeting at Morton’s Steakhouse, an FBI agent who secretly observed the scene testified.
The senator also traded gold bars and cash for trying to meddle in a federal bank fraud case against Daibes and setting up a meeting between the real estate mogul and a member of the Qatari ruling family, prosecutors said.
Gold bars in the Menendezes’ safe had serial numbers linking them to Daibes, while envelopes of cash bore fingerprints tying them to both him and Hana, trial evidence showed.
Hana and Daibes were both also convicted on Tuesday, and each face up to 20 years in prison on the top count when they are also sentenced on Oct. 29.
When asked by reporters how he felt about the guilty verdict as he left court for the day, Daibes responded, “Not good,” while flashing a half-smile. Hana declined to comment.
Menendez’s attorneys had claimed the feds tried to dazzle jurors with the gold and cash found in their client’s home to overcompensate for a “thin” case relying on scant evidence that the senator had taken “official acts” in exchange for the bribes.
“The core of this case is hollow,” Menendez’s lawyer Adam Fee said in his closing statement.
I’m surprised that there were no Greek or Cypriot names mentioned as paying off Menendez. We all know how much he supported Greece and Cyprus. Did he do it because he is a philhellene? He was the best defender of Greece’s positions than even Greek-Americans. Menendez knew the history of the Cyprus conflict and the threat Turkey posed. Turkey is breathing a sigh of relief that he is gone. For us, Greeks, no matter what political party we belong to, it is a sad day to see one of our supporters having fallen so far and so fast.
The “gold bar” scandal broke out suspiciously soon after the Turks got upset at having their military upgrade visions being indefinitely blocked by Congress and the Senate. Nobody is talking about the possibility of “retaliation” here. If you follow this curious timing trail, it almost seems like Turkish intelligence may have retaliated to the “upgrade denial”, by ratting out someone that they knew was an “investable asset” in the past, who may have even betrayed them with the “denial”, and were also likely fully aware of the dealings with Egypt (and others). On the other hand, if someone “rats out” a politician about “Egyptian transactions”, perhaps in exchange the prosecutor is willing to “look the other way” about some of the dealings involving the one who is “ratting out” (the scenario that any Greek and Turkish “dealings” of the past may have crossed the same “desks” is not out of the question)…Either way, if the low-hanging fruit (Egyptian evidence) was sufficient for a major conviction, it’s probably not surprising that they didn’t invest infinite time producing additional trails of evidence in this case.
Power corrupts.
Is this Bob Menendez’ daughter photographed with him? Oh, I mean caregiver? Or maybe she’s the babysitter dressing like she is a young twenty something trophy-wife in a dress too small for her size?
His fine, shiny, pinstripe suite just oozes sleaze. His face clearly shows he’s only sorry he got caught. Bob, I hope you spend the rest of your days alive behind bars. I hear the bologna sandwiches and cookies in the commissary are just delicious!