Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in jail Wednesday for accepting bribes of money and gold bars and serving as an agent of Egypt as he bought affect to businessmen keen to use his political energy.
U.S. District Choose Sidney H. Stein in Manhattan introduced the sentence after Menendez tearfully addressed the choose, saying he’d misplaced all the pieces he cared about, aside from his spouse.
“You were successful, powerful, you stood at the apex of our political system,” the choose mentioned. ”Someplace alongside the way in which, and I don’t know when it was, you misplaced your means and dealing for the general public good turned working in your good.”
Prosecutors had requested a 15-year jail time period for the Democrat who was convicted of a number of fees together with appearing as an agent for Egypt for promoting his once-considerable clout in Washington for bribes price lots of of 1000’s of {dollars}.
Given an opportunity to talk earlier than he was sentenced, Menendez broke down a number of instances as he described his accomplishments.
“You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence,” Menendez instructed Stein as he stood earlier than him along with his palms in his pockets, besides when he wiped his face with a tissue.
“Your honor, I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions,” he added. “I’ve done far more good than bad. I ask you, your honor, to judge me in that context.”
Lawyer Adam Charge instructed Stein to offer Menendez credit score for a “lifetime of extraordinary public service and personal sacrifices.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as gold bar Bob,” Charge mentioned.
Menendez’s legal professionals had mentioned previous to the sentencing that their shopper deserves lower than two years in jail, citing his a long time of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to grow to be “the epitome of the American Dream.”
However Charge mentioned the protection group determined to ask that Menendez get not more than eight years after listening to Stein earlier within the day give substantial jail phrases to 2 New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator. Fred Daibes, an actual property developer, bought seven years and a $1.75 million high quality. Wael Hana, an entrepreneur, bought eight years a $1.25 million high quality and was ordered to forfeit $125,000.
Previous to the announcement of his sentence, Daibes, 67, tearfully instructed Stein the jury verdict had left him “borderline suicidal,” and requested leniency in order that he may look after his 30-year-old autistic son.
Hana instructed the choose, “I’m an harmless man.”
“I by no means bribed Senator Menendez or requested his workplace for affect.”
The choose, although, mentioned the jury’s verdict was “very, very substantial.”
A 3rd businessman pleaded responsible and testified towards Menendez at a trial final 12 months.
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction final 12 months, although he misplaced a lot of his energy in fall 2023 when the fees towards him have been revealed and he was compelled to give up his highly effective publish as chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee.
The trial traced Menendez’s dealings with Egyptian officers and his quest to help three males who showered him with profitable items discovered throughout a 2022 raid on the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, house he shared along with his spouse, Nadine.
FBI brokers who searched the home discovered $480,000, a few of it stuffed inside boots and the pockets of clothes hung within the couple’s closets. In addition they seized gold bars price an estimated $150,000.
Prosecutors mentioned Menendez had “put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” together with by serving Egypt’s pursuits as he labored to guard a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian authorities.
Amongst different issues, Menendez supplied Egyptian officers with details about the workers on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to elevate a maintain on $300 million in army assist to Egypt.
Prosecutors mentioned that for different bribes, Menendez tried to influence a federal prosecutor in New Jersey to go simple on Daibes, a politically influential actual property developer accused of financial institution fraud.
And on the trial, one other businessman, Jose Uribe, testified that he helped Nadine Menendez get a Mercedes-Benz convertible after the senator sought to strain state prosecutors to drop legal probes of his associates.
Menendez has insisted that he’s harmless of any crime, saying repeatedly that his interactions with Egyptian officers have been regular for the top of the Overseas Relations Committee, and that he at all times put American pursuits first. He denied taking any bribes and mentioned the gold bars belonged to his spouse.
Nadine Menendez faces trial in March on most of the similar fees as her husband after spending the final 12 months battling breast most cancers.
Menendez’s legal professionals, in a presentence submission, mentioned he had already suffered vastly.
“Unsurprisingly, Senator Menendez’s conviction has rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit,” his legal professionals wrote. “Bob is now 71, along with his long-built popularity in tatters. He has suffered monetary {and professional} destroy.”
In courtroom papers, the legal professionals described how Menendez devoted a lot of his life to his nation and his group after he was scarred by the early lack of his father, who killed himself when Menendez was 23 after he was unable to repay playing money owed.
They described a 50-year historical past of public service in heroic phrases, tracing a profession during which Menendez was mayor of Union Metropolis, New Jersey, a state lawmaker, a member of the U.S. Home after which a senator from 2006 to 2024.
But he additionally had the excellence of being the one U.S. senator indicted twice.
In 2015, he was charged with promoting his affect to a rich Florida eye physician and entrepreneur who prosecutors mentioned lavished him with luxurious holidays and marketing campaign contributions. However the jury in that case could not attain a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors dropped the case moderately than put him on trial once more.
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