Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Adam Gray/Getty Images
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) exits Manhattan federal court on July 16, 2024 in New York City, where the jury found Menendez guilty of taking bribes of gold bars, a luxury car, and cash in exchange for using his position to help foreign governments
(JNS) — Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was convicted on Tuesday on all counts in a federal corruption trial determining that he had accepted bribes on behalf of the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
Prosecutors proved that Menendez, one of the most prominent supporters of Israel on Capitol Hill and a former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accepted a Mercedes-Benz convertible, gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and other bribes as part of a scheme to benefit the two Middle Eastern dictatorships.
“This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption,” stated Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “This wasn’t politics as usual. This was politics for profit.”
“Because Senator Menendez has now been found guilty, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end,” Williams added.
The jury found Menendez guilty on 16 charges, with a combined maximum sentence of 222 years in prison for the 70-year-old senator.
Menendez was previously indicted for corruption in 2015, but those charges were dropped following a mistrial.
In 2023, he was indicted again on charges that he accepted bribes as part of a scheme between a New Jersey-based halal meat inspection company and the Egyptian government. Prosecutors then further alleged that Menendez received wrist watches and Formula 1 racing tickets on behalf of the government of Qatar.
One key piece of evidence was recorded by the FBI in 2019 at Morton’s The Steakhouse, where Menendez’s wife Nadine asked an Egyptian intelligence officer and one of the senator’s co-defendants, Wael Hana, “What else can the love of my life do for you?” (Hana was also found guilty Tuesday.)
Per federal election records, Menendez spent nearly $300,000 in the past 20 years at Morton’s, a Washington, D.C., restaurant and cigar bar where he ate and smoked some 250 times a year, according to investigators.
Nadine Menendez, who was charged alongside her husband in the case, had her trial separated in April after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The judge presiding over the cases announced on Tuesday after Sen. Menendez’s conviction that Nadine’s trial will be delayed.
Menendez pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, and his lawyers argued that the cash and gold bars that the FBI discovered at the senator’s house reflected his family’s experience fleeing communism under Fidel Castro.
“It’s a Cuban thing,” testified Caridad Gonzalez, Menendez’s sister. “They were afraid of losing what they worked so hard for.”
Menendez stepped down from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee following his indictment last year but did not resign his Senate seat.
Leading Democrats called for Menendez to resign immediately after the verdict on Tuesday.
“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate and our country, and resign,” wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy, a Democrat, said that if Menendez refuses to resign, the Senate should expel him.
Menendez did not run in the Democratic primary for the New Jersey Senate seat but filed in June to run as an independent in November.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who won the June primary, said on Tuesday at a press conference that he would be willing to be appointed to the Senate seat ahead of the November election.
“If asked, I would accept, but that is a decision for the governor,” Kim said.
Menendez is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29.
