Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was hit Tuesday with another set of federal bribery allegations in a superseding indictment, thus derailing his “no more indictments” New Year’s resolution — assuming he was confident enough to make one. It’s important to know yourself and how much you can reasonably commit to a major lifestyle change. Of course, even if he’d gone with the seemingly more doable “No Indictments January,” he’d have still failed.
The indictment doesn’t add charges but does inform the public about previously unknown levels of corruption from the miraculously still sitting senator from New Jersey. Menendez, his wife Nadine, and two other associates are accused of using Menendez’s influence as a senator to aid the Egyptian government, which is not in New Jersey (not even Teaneck). Prosecutors now claim that Menendez was also on the payroll for the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation Qatar.
The superseding indictment alleges that the senator brokered a multimillion-dollar real estate deal between a Qatari investor and Fred Daibes, a New Jersey developer who is also charged as a defendant in the case.
In August 2021, Menendez allegedly sent out a preview of his own news release praising Qatar before its actual release. It was forwarded to a Qatari official, according to the indictment, potentially showing a cozy relationship between the senator and Qatari contacts or that he was issuing the news release to please them.
After an October 2021 trip with his wife to Egypt and Qatar, Menendez allegedly searched the web for the value of a gold bar. Presumably, it looked something like this:
The internet is such a technological marvel! When Menendez was a kid, he would’ve had to go to the public library and deal with card catalogs.
Prosecutors contend that the Menendezes were paid off in gold, cash, and other prizes. It was like a game show over there — “it’s a NEW MERCEDES, Nadine!” According to a text exchange — the best way to solicit bribes if you want to get caught — Fred Daibes allegedly offered Menendez a selection of fancy watches ranging in price from $10,000 to $24,000. As long as they weren’t digital.
Nadine allegedly was offered a no-show job by another of their associates, Wael Hana, an Egyptian businessman, according to the original indictment. Hana is also charged.
This is probably far worse than accepting repayment for a car loan to your son, especially since unlike President Joe Biden, Bob and Nadine Menendez apparently did try to cover up all the blatant bribery with this half-baked excuse.
A Menendez spokesperson — whose job requires more imagination than a scriptwriter for that Wonka movie — said the prosecutors had just assembled “a string of baseless assumptions and bizarre conjectures based on routine, lawful contacts between a Senator and his constituents.”
It gets funnier:
“At all times, Senator Menendez acted entirely appropriately with respect to Qatar, Egypt, and the many other countries he routinely interacts with,” Adam Fee, an attorney for Menendez, said in a statement. “Those interactions were always based on his professional judgment as to the best interests of the United States because he is, and always has been, a patriot.”
Yes, he’s a patriot … who accepts payment for his beneficence in gold bars and Rolex watches. He’s such a damn patriot, he still won’t resign! Meanwhile, Menendez remains on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and can attend classified briefings. Looks like Congress’s “No Bullshit” January is already a bust.
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Okay, SER, you're really pushing the boundaries of the "cat pictures only" agreement!
What concerns me about Menendez is why did Saudi Arabia give Kushner 2 billion dollars. Menendez is a sand flea compared to gop corruption.