Sleaze on Steroids
New Jersey and political corruption, perfect together. It's Senior Senator is indicted, again, and the indictment reads like a Hollywood script. There's even a Hunter Biden connection.
It’s one thing that when you rummage through the pockets of your coats and jackets as the weather turns, you happily discover a one or five-dollar bill. Maybe two.
It’s quite another thing when the FBI arrives at your home (!) and finds a pair of jackets emblazoned with your name and pockets stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash. Not one jacket, but two.
Nearly $500,000 in currency was found at the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey residence of US Senator and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife of nearly four years, Nadine.
Most people with that kind of cash - equal to almost three years of salary for a Member of Congress - would keep it in a financial institution. Not to mention the two one-kilo gold bars found wrapped in paper towels. Each of them today is worth almost $62,000. Most financial advisors would not suggest you keep that much gold at home, even under lock and key, much less paper towels.
Mother Jones, a favorite magazine of leftists, describes Friday’s indictment:
Sen. Robert Menendez was charged Friday with using his power to help three men and the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes. Prosecutors say the New Jersey Democrat and his wife took hundreds of thousands of dollars via gold bars, mortgage payments, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and cash that investigators found hidden in envelopes inside jackets bearing the senator’s name.
When I heard about the indictment on Friday, my immediate reaction was, “Again?” Six years ago, a hung jury failed to convict the Senator on corruption charges involving his “friendship” with a Florida ophthalmologist who showered Menendez with undisclosed gifts and trips to his luxury villa in the Dominican Republic while fraudulently bilking Medicare for services he never performed, with repeated intervention on his behalf by the Senator.
Observation: Menendez’s indictments have arrived via Democratic-run Departments of Justice, Barack Obama’s in 2015, and now Joe Biden’s in 2023. I wonder if Menendez’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) and normalization with Cuba, both Obama priorities, played a role in an increasingly weaponized Department of Justice. Perhaps time and good reporting will tell.
Dr. Salomon Melgen was convicted of Medicare fraud but saw his sentence commuted by President Trump. He was going out the door in early 2021, citing appeals by Menendez and US Rep. Mario Diaz Belart (R-FL) in Trump’s dubious decision.
The Senate Ethics Committee would later “severely admonish” the Senator in a scathing letter.
Prosecutors dropped their 2015 charges against Menendez in the Melgen affair when they couldn’t deliver a “smoking gun” tying official acts to gifts and campaign contributions to the Senator. The definition of “official acts” had been narrowed a year later in a case involving former GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell. The Supreme Court, on a unanimous 9-0 vote, narrowed the definition of “official acts” to exclude setting up meetings, calling officials, or hosting events. That led prosecutors to drop many of the charges. The jury voted 10-2 to exonerate Menendez.
But this indictment is different. Way different. And it comes at a bad time for Senate Democrats who took the Senator’s reelection in 2024 for granted. New Jersey, while still heavily Democratic, is now in play.
How different? When Menendez last survived a court trial, he was still more than a year away from his 2018 reelection campaign against GOP pharma executive Bob Hugin. Menendez won by 11 points in a Democratic year. Menendez won his first full term in another Democratic year, 2006 - he’d been appointed the Garden State’s first Latino Senator by new Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine - by defeating now-US Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), also by an 11-point margin.
Menendez has always run in good Democratic years. He easily won by nearly 20 points against St. Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-NJ) in 2012, when Barack Obama was handily reelected President. Given Joe Biden's unpopularity and a sour economy, he won’t have that luxury this time if he goes through with a reelection campaign.
And the Democratic support Menendez benefitted from during his first indictment has disappeared in round two.
He’s already attracted his first primary challenger, the opportunistic US Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a backbencher representing a marginally Democratic House seat that includes Burlington and heavily Republican Ocean Counties in Philadelphia’s orbit. Kim, a former Obama Administration official, won his seat in 2018 and was among the first, along with his neighbor to the south, US Rep. Don Norcross (D-NJ), to call on Menendez to resign. So did incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who may have designs on the seat for himself. He’s serving in his second and final term. The former US Ambassador to Germany reportedly harbors national ambitions, and being a lame-duck or former governor is not exactly a great launching pad.
And once you read the indictment, you’ll understand the calls for Menendez’s resignation. Kim’s House seat, once held by former Rep. Tom McArthur (R-NJ), is now in play for the GOP.
But so much for the politics. Menendez has three options: Resign (unlikely), retire when his term ends in 16 months, or seek reelection. My money is on number two, but he’ll want to raise a lot of money first to pay for his defense.
New Jersey’s other US Senator and 2016 presidential candidate, Cory Booker, is eerily silent on the matter.
And suppose Menendez opts not to seek reelection. In that case, Kim will have plenty of company in the Democratic primary, possibly including Norcross, whose older brother, George, is southern New Jersey’s legendary Democratic party boss. Open Senate seats don’t come along very often in New Jersey, except when incumbents are forced to resign over corrupt acts, as happened with Democrats Robert Torricelli and Harrison Williams in recent years. It’s unclear who would be the GOP’s best candidate for Menendez’s seat, but most discount former Gov. Chris Christie, who left office six years ago with an eight percent job approval rating. Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder. Christie hails from Mendham, whose GOP mayor, Christine Serrano-Glassner is running for the US Senate. Democrat-turned-Republican US Rep. Jeff Van Drew is now considering a run.
The GOP hasn’t won a US Senate seat here since 1972.
Menendez will need a lot of money because these charges are severe and specific, with lots of incriminating evidence, from emails and texts to photos and meetings where the Senator inappropriately tried to intervene with state and federal prosecutors for cash, gold bars and a car for his wife, Nadine.
Nadine, especially, is a horrible actor in the 39-page indictment. She demanded compensation for getting her husband to intervene on behalf of the Egyptian government through a Halal meat dealer, mainly to approve arms sales. But that’s not all. The chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have a special say in approving these deals, and Menendez is accused of trading his position for cash and more.
The Senator’s reaction, as reported by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper:
“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent. They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met,” he said. “Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals.”
Playing the race card. Not a strong defense.
As for “normal work” of a Congressional office, that’s something I’m very familiar with, having worked for three House Members, including as Chief of Staff. I don’t recall anyone showering my bosses or their spouses with a new Mercedes Benz, one-kilo gold bars, or wads of cash for official actions. None had a spouse who acted as a go-between foreign actors or indicted campaign supporters, nor would countenance that if they had.
Let me sum up some of the accusations from the 47 paragraphs that precede the three-count federal indictment from a Grand Jury impaneled in New York’s Southern District. Why not the District of New Jersey? Because Menendez engineered the nomination and confirmation of its US Attorney, Philip Sellinger, a former Menendez fundraiser whose office the Senator allegedly tried to intervene with on behalf of a co-conspirator. Sellinger is not accused of any wrongdoing. Associated Press explains the backstory:
NEW YORK (AP) — In late 2020, Sen. Bob Menendez met with Philip Sellinger, a private practice lawyer and former fundraiser for the senator, to assess his potential fit as the next U.S. attorney for the state of New Jersey — and to discuss one case in particular.
If appointed, Sellinger would assume control of one of the largest prosecutor’s offices in the country, a post that comes with the power to bust mob bosses and go after corrupt public officials.
But Menendez, federal prosecutors say, was fixated on a less consequential matter: ensuring the future prosecutor would act sympathetically toward a friend of his facing bank fraud charges, real estate developer Fred Daibes.
Daibes is now a key figure in a sweeping bribery case brought against Menendez, his wife and multiple other associates. It accuses Menendez and his wife of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash, gold bars and a luxury car in exchange for a range of favors, including secretly aiding the government of Egypt on U.S. policy matters and interfering in three criminal investigations, including the one involving Daibes.
I read the indictment so you wouldn’t have to. But it is riveting. Snippets:
Paragraph 12: “In or about 2018, shortly after ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants, began dating, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, and NADINE MENENDEZ arranged a series of meetings and dinners with MENENDEZ—paid for by HANA or his associates—at which Egyptian officials raised, among other things, requests related to foreign military sales and foreign military financing. In exchange for MENENDEZ’s and NADINE MENENDEZ’s promise that MENENDEZ would, among other things, use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt, HANA promised, among other things, to put NADINE MENENDEZ on the payroll of his company in a low-or-no-show job.”
Also Paragraph 12: “MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ again met with HANA on or about May 6, 2018. Later that same day, MENENDEZ sought from the State Department nonpublic information regarding the number and nationality of persons serving at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Although this information was not classified, it was deemed highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public. Without telling his professional staff, SFRC staff, or the State Department that he was doing so, on or about May 7, 2018, MENENDEZ texted that sensitive, non-public embassy information to his then-girlfriend NADINE MENENDEZ, writing:
Just FYI. [a number] Americans – combination of diplomats, commercial service, USAID, other [a number] Egyptians, locally employed staff This is what’s at American embassy. [Summary of ratio] are Egyptians working at Embassy.
NADINE MENENDEZ forwarded this message to HANA, who forwarded it to an Egyptian government official (“Egyptian Official-2”).”
Paragraph 29: “In or about early 2021, HANA used IS EG Halal funds to cause two exercise machines and an air purifier, among other items, collectively worth thousands of dollars, to be purchased online and delivered to the house of MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ.”
Paragraph 30: “In exchange for the promises and acts set forth above, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” and FRED DAIBES, the defendants, provided multiple things of value to ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants, including with the assistance of JOSE URIBE, the defendant. Those things of value included hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks, cash, and gold, some of which was recovered during the June 2022 court-authorized search of the residence of MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ described above. NADINE MENENDEZ caused some of the gold to be sold in Manhattan prior to the search and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts she controlled.”
Paragraph 31: “In or about 2019, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” and JOSE URIBE, the defendants, offered and then helped to buy a new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible (the “Mercedes-Benz Convertible”) worth more than $60,000 for NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” and ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendants. In exchange, MENENDEZ agreed and sought to interfere in a New Jersey state criminal prosecution of an associate of URIBE (the “New Jersey Defendant”) and a state criminal investigation involving an employee of URIBE (the “New Jersey Investigative Subject”), whom URIBE referred to as a relative in communicating with NADINE MENENDEZ. Specifically, MENENDEZ contacted a senior state prosecutor in the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General who supervised the prosecution of the New Jersey Defendant and the investigation involving the New Jersey Investigative Subject (“Official-2”) in an attempt, through advice and pressure, to cause Official2 to resolve these matters favorably to the New Jersey Defendant and the New Jersey 20 Investigative Subject. Official-2 considered ROBERT MENENDEZ’s actions inappropriate and did not agree to intervene.”
Paragraph 38: “From at least in or about December 2020 to at least in or about early 2022, ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, agreed to attempt to influence and attempted to influence the pending federal prosecution of FRED DAIBES, the defendant, in exchange for cash, furniture, and gold bars that DAIBES provided to MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, including by recommending that the President nominate a candidate for U.S Attorney for the District of New Jersey who MENENDEZ believed could be influenced by MENENDEZ with respect to DAIBES’s case, and by attempting to influence the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey to act favorably in DAIBES’s case.”
Holy cow. No word on when the trial begins.
Oh, the Hunter Biden connection. It’s not in the indictment nor illegal, but it reminds me of a fable:
“A man is known by the company he keeps” is the moral of an Aesop fable entitled “The Ass and His Purchaser.” Old as time, it has just resurfaced in a new, modern version. We are learning a lot about the company Sen. Menendez keeps.