[ZeroHedge] Former New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob 'Gold Bar' Menendez - who sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while working for the Egyptian government (which was notably exempt from Trump's recent halt to foreign aid) has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison following his conviction on corruption charges.The sentence comes after a jury convicted Menendez on 16 counts in a sweeping pay-for-play scheme to sell his office to foreign powers and shady businessmen in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, solid gold bars, and a Mercedes Benz.
Charges against Menendez included wire fraud, bribery and extortion - making Menendez the seventh sitting US senator to be convicted of a federal crime.
Menendez and his wife Nadine were accused by prosecutors of orchestrating a bribery scheme while he was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he acted as an agent of Egypt, and intervened to quash a separate criminal prosecution in New Jersey in exchange for payoffs - and then tried to cover it up.
In a superseding indictment filed in Manhattan federal court, Menendez was accused of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires anyone acting as "an agent of a foreign principal" to register with the US government. Menendez was prohibited from doing so either way as a member of Congress.
According to the indictment, Menendez and his wife, along with business associate Wael Hana, met with an Egyptian intelligence official in Menendez's Senate office in Washington DC, during which they discussed a US citizen who was injured in a 2015 airstrike by the Egyptian military - an incident which some members of Congress cited as a reason to withhold certain military aid to Egypt.
Shortly after the meeting, the Egyptian official texted Hana that if Menendez took care of the matter, "he will sit very comfortably."
"It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington," said federal prosecutor Paul M. Monteleoni in his closing argument. "But he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife."
| Courtesy of Frank G, the NY Post has all the colour commentary: Disgraced ex-NJ Sen. Bob Menendez cries as he begs for leniency ‐ but gets 11 years in prison for gold bar bribery scheme |
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Related:
Wael Hana 06/09/2024 New Jersey businessman testifies he promised up to $250,000 in bribes in exchange for Sen. Bob Menendez's help
Wael Hana 09/27/2023 Egyptian businessman, 40, accused of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez, 69, arrested by feds on corruption charges at JFK and freed on $5million bond
Wael Hana 09/24/2023 Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez spent years helping developer and imam behind controversial ground zero mosque
Wael Hana 06/09/2024 New Jersey businessman testifies he promised up to $250,000 in bribes in exchange for Sen. Bob Menendez's help
Wael Hana 09/27/2023 Egyptian businessman, 40, accused of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez, 69, arrested by feds on corruption charges at JFK and freed on $5million bond
Wael Hana 09/24/2023 Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez spent years helping developer and imam behind controversial ground zero mosque