Former Sen. Bob Menendez is transparently on the lookout for a pardon from President Donald Trump, after the New Jersey Democrat was sentenced to 11 years in federal jail for accepting bribes and illegally performing as an agent for Egypt.
In a information convention exterior of the courthouse the place he had been sentenced, Menendez blatantly tried to attraction to Trump’s wrongful perception that former President Joe Biden’s Division of Justice was politicized.
“President Trump was right,” Menendez stated exterior of the federal courthouse in New York the place he had been sentenced. “This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
Menendez later wrote a lengthy publish on X the place he once more spewed nonsense in regards to the DOJ being corrupt earlier than tagging Trump’s deal with, a blatant try to ensure Trump noticed his ridiculous screed.
“Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the Wild West of political prosecutions,” Menendez wrote. “President Trump is right. This process is political and has been corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system.”
MSNBC confirmed that Menendez is, in reality, searching for clemency from Trump to keep away from spending years in jail for his crimes.
Buttering Trump as much as get a pardon is an efficient wager for Menendez, as Trump has confirmed on a number of events a willingness to grant clemency to crooks and violent offenders in the event that they reward Trump’s management or assist his disturbing coverage agenda.
In one in all his first acts of his second time period, Trump pardoned greater than 1,500 insurrectionists who illegally broke into the U.S. Capitol to cease certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. A whole lot of the pardoned insurrectionists had violently assaulted regulation enforcement officers, and some have had run-ins with the regulation since their launch.
The New York Instances additionally reported on Wednesday that Trump’s DOJ is discussing dropping fees in opposition to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams was charged in September with bribery and soliciting unlawful marketing campaign contributions. Since Adams’ indictment, the mayor has been cozying as much as Trump, main Trump to say in December that he thought Adams was being handled “fairly unfairly.”
Adams can also be at present being defended by Trump “co-President” Elon Musk’s private legal professional, Alex Spiro. The New York Instances reported that Spiro has, “suggested that the mayor would not be inclined to cooperate with the president’s immigration crackdown if he remained under indictment”—which sounds just a little bit like extortion.
Menendez’s pardon searching for additionally got here the identical day Trump’s DOJ moved to drop fees in opposition to former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska.
Fortenberry was convicted by a federal jury in 2022 for mendacity to the FBI about overseas contributions to his marketing campaign, however the conviction was thrown out as a result of a choose dominated it was tried within the improper venue. The DOJ was going to retry the case in Washington, however dropped the case within the second week of Trump’s new tenure.
What’s extra, in Trump’s first time period, he pardoned or commuted the sentence of quite a few criminals who had been both his longtime buddies or who had heaped reward on Trump.
In one in all his ultimate acts in his first time period, Trump commuted the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was serving a 14-year sentence for making an attempt to promote the U.S. Senate seat that had been held by President Barack Obama. Blagojevich’s spouse had made private appeals to Trump on Fox Information, Trump’s favourite community.
Trump additionally pardoned virulently racist former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of felony contempt for refusing to adjust to a judicial order to cease racially profiling immigrants.
He additionally pardoned right-wing agitator Dinesh D’Souza, who was convicted of finishing up a straw donor scheme; Paul Manafort, Trump’s former marketing campaign chair, who was convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering; Roger Stone, a Trump ally who was convicted of mendacity to Congress through the Russia investigation; and Charles Kushner, the daddy of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who in 2005 had pleaded responsible to submitting false tax returns and retaliating in opposition to a cooperating witness.
Trump talks a giant recreation about “law and order.” However in follow, Trump has pardoned a whole bunch of criminals as a result of they like him. Trump’s ego is aware of no bounds.
