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Menendez sentenced to 11 years in prison (+Español)
On Wednesday, Robert Menendez, a disgraced U.S. senator and once one of the most powerful Democrats in the country, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in an international bribery scheme.
As reported by The New York Times, “The former senator’s fall from grace has been steep and swift. He resigned from the Senate in August after a jury convicted him of trading his political clout for hundreds of thousands of dollars, bricks of gold and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
“When he was indicted 16 months ago, Mr. Menendez was serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of the most powerful perches in Washington.”
Upon exiting the courthouse after the sentencing Menendez addressed the media present stating, “Let me just say this, this whole process has been nothing but a political witch hunt.”
He then added, “President Trump is right. 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.”
It seems that Menendez, a lifelong Democrat, now seeks mercy from no other than President Donald Trump.
As chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, “the role gave him outsize influence over foreign military aid and international policy. And during a nine-week trial that ended last summer, federal prosecutors emphasized the many ways in which Mr. Menendez used that power,” reported The Times, adding, “the prosecutors, in a recent memo to Judge Stein, described Mr. Menendez’s conduct as possibly ‘the most serious for which a U.S. senator has been convicted in the history of the republic,’ and asked the judge to impose a sentence of at least 15 years in prison.”
Menendez was found guilty in July on all 16 counts he faced, including bribery, extortion, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and acting as an agent for Egypt. He is the first U.S. senator ever convicted of acting as an agent of a foreign power.
The Times reported that “testimony and evidence introduced at trial showed Mr. Menendez and his wife conspiring during furtive dinners and on encrypted calls. The scheme, according to the indictment, largely revolved around efforts to steer aid to Egypt and help three New Jersey businessmen, who were also charged.”