Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez faces the potential for an extended jail time period when he’s sentenced Wednesday for promoting his once-considerable clout in Washington for gold bars, a luxurious automobile and a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} in money bribes.
Prosecutors have requested a federal decide to offer the Democrat 15 years behind bars for crimes that embody appearing as an agent of the Egyptian authorities.
Menendez’s legal professionals say he deserves lower than two years in jail, citing his many years of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to develop into “the epitome of the American Dream.”
Within the morning, Decide Sidney H. Stein sentenced Fred Daibes, a New Jersey actual property developer, to seven years in jail. He additionally fined him $1.75 million.
Previous to the announcement of his sentence, a tearful Daibes advised Stein that the jury verdict had left him “borderline suicidal,” and requested leniency in order that he might look after his 30-year-old autistic son.
Daibes was one in all two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator. The opposite, Wael Hana, was sentenced to greater than eight years behind bars, together with a $1.25 million superb.
Earlier than he was sentenced, Hana denied having bribed Menendez or his spouse, telling the decide “if I had known my generous behavior was being misunderstood, I would have taken different directions.” However the decide stated the proof towards Hana was “substantial” and he “can’t overstate the seriousness of the crimes he engaged in.”
Stein was scheduled to condemn Menendez within the afternoon. A 3rd businessman pleaded responsible and testified towards Menendez at a trial final yr.
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction final yr, although he misplaced a lot of his energy in fall 2023 when the costs towards him had been revealed and he was pressured to give up his highly effective submit as chairman of the Senate International 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, residence he shared along with his spouse, Nadine.
FBI brokers who searched the home discovered $480,000 in money, 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 stated 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 offered Egyptian officers with details about the employees on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to elevate a maintain on $300 million in navy help to Egypt.
Prosecutors stated 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 stress state prosecutors to drop prison probes of his associates.
Menendez has insisted that he’s harmless of any crime, saying repeatedly that his interactions with Egyptian officers had been regular for the pinnacle of the International Relations Committee, and that he at all times put American pursuits first. He denied taking any bribes and stated 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 yr battling breast most cancers.
Prosecutors stated in a courtroom submitting that lengthy jail phrases are a warranted punishment “for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust.”
“The defendants engaged, for years, in a corruption and overseas affect scheme of beautiful brazenness, breadth, and length, leading to exceptionally grave abuses of energy on the highest ranges of the Legislative Department of america Authorities,” they wrote.
Menendez’s legal professionals, in a presentence submission, stated he had already suffered drastically.
“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} smash.”
Menendez’s regulation license has been suspended and will probably be revoked if his conviction stands. His state pension is in jeopardy. His title has already been stripped from an elementary faculty in New Jersey.
“His once broad circle of friends and political allies have largely disappeared,” his legal professionals stated. “While all defendants suffer inevitable personal and professional consequences if convicted of serious federal crimes, Senator Menendez in many important respects has already been punished relatively more harshly due to his position.”
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 through 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 stated 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 slightly than put him on trial once more.
