(RightWing.org) – Selling the power and influence of one’s office in the nation’s capital is a more frequent occurrence than the American people deserve from the men and women they have chosen to represent them. Unanswered allegations about President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and the People’s Republic of China show just how far up these things have the potential to reach. Now a man who has spent decades in the halls of Congress has been convicted on numerous counts including bribery.
A Tangled Web
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has served in that position since 2006, before which he represented the state’s 13th district in the House of Representatives beginning in 1993. He, Wael “Will” Hana, and Fred Daibes were found guilty on all counts brought against them after a jury deliberated for approximately 12 hours over the course of three days. Some of the charges include, amongst others:
- Conspiracy to Commit Extortion Under Color of Official Right (Menendez only).
- Honest Services Wire Fraud — Actions to Benefit Daibes and Qatar.
- Conspiracy For a Public Official to Act As a Foreign Agent [for Egypt].
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for October 29 where Menendez faces the potential of two centuries behind bars in the unlikely event the judge would hit him with the maximum time under the law and ordered all of it to be served consecutively. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) first raided the senator’s home in June 2022, they found gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and almost $500,000,000 in cash stuffed into clothing and even a pair of his work boots.
Other enticements to peddle his influence while Menendez served as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee included luxury flights on private airplanes and the use of exclusive Caribbean houses. Media reports on the trial say that the senator’s legal team employed a strategy of claiming ignorance and blaming it all on his wife Nadine (nee Arslanian) Menendez.
Mrs. Menendez was initially a part of the original indictment, but her case was severed and she has been facing her own trial which has now been continued since her diagnosis of advanced breast cancer. The senator has been facing calls to step down from his office ever since the indictment was made public, despite his conviction he has still steadfastly refused to do that even after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) joined in with the litany of others saying that it is time for him to go.
This is not the first time that Senator Menendez was indicted for using his office to enrich himself and selling his influence to benefit another rich individual. In 2015, he was indicted for allegedly inserting himself in “contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars” for a Florida ophthalmologist and fast-tracking visa applications for several of the doctor’s foreign girlfriends. That trial ended with a hung jury.
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