martes 10 de diciembre de 2024
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Bob Menendez convicted on bribery, foreign agent charges

Washington (The Hill) New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez (D) was found guilty of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and a slew of other charges in his federal corruption.

The embattled Democrat and ex-chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee was convicted on all 16 counts he faced, from accepting luxurious bribes in exchange for his political clout to acting as a foreign agent of Egypt.

Two New Jersey businessmen tried alongside Menendez were also convicted on all counts.

Menendez now stares down decades in prison while mounting an independent reelection bid for a fourth term in the upper chamber. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) have already called on their fellow Democrat to resign in the aftermath of the verdict.

Menendez sentencing is scheduled for October 29, according to the New York Times.

Federal prosecutors accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine, last year of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and lavish gifts from the two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, and a third businessman who pleaded guilty before the trial began.

The businessmen benefited from Menendez’s political power in exchange for the bribes, prosecutors said.

In several superseding indictments, the senator was accused of conspiring to act as a foreign agent of Egypt, accepting gifts from the Qatari government and conspiring to cover up the bribery scheme as prosecutors worked the case.

Over several weeks, the government presented testimony that more than $486,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars were found in the Menendez’s home by the FBI and showed evidence that Nadine Menendez frequently served as a go-between for her husband and the businessmen.

Nadine Menendez faces several charges herself, but her case was severed from the others after informing the court that she would undergo a surgical procedure for breast cancer. Her trial was scheduled for August before a judge indefinitely delayed it Monday, and she has pleaded not guilty.

Menendez’s attorneys sought to pin the blame on the senator’s wife at times, contending she hid her dealings with the businessmen from him.

Jose Uribe, the businessman who pleaded guilty, testified that he thought he struck a quarter-million-dollar deal with Menendez in 2018 to pressure the New Jersey attorney general’s office to cease its investigation of his friends and family.

Menendez did not take the stand to testify in his own defense, telling reporters last week that the government failed to prove “every aspect” of its case and that testifying would “give them another chance.”

The New Jersey Democrat faced charges including bribery, extortion, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction of justice. He maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty, though he stepped away from his post leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted, in line with Senate Democratic Conference rules. Menendez previously faced federal corruption charges in 2015, but they were dropped after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

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