NEW YORK When former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is sentenced on Wednesday for selling his once-considerable influence in Washington for gold bars, a fancy automobile, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash bribes, he faces the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence.
A federal judge has been requested by prosecutors to sentence the Democrat to 15 years in prison for offenses that include operating as an agent of the Egyptian government.
Citing his decades of public service and a generally comfortable existence after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to become the embodiment of the American Dream, Menendez’s attorneys argue that he should serve less than two years in prison.
Fred Daibes, a real estate developer from New Jersey, was given a seven-year prison sentence by Judge Sidney H. Stein in the morning. He penalized him $1.75 million as well.
Daibes was one of two businessmen from New Jersey found guilty of bribing the senator. Wael Hana, the other, was pending punishment.
A emotional Daibes told Stein before his sentence was announced that the jury judgment had left him on the verge of suicide and asked for leniency so he could take care of his 30-year-old autistic son.
Menendez was to be sentenced by Stein in the afternoon. During a trial last year, a third businessman testified against Menendezat and entered a guilty plea.
Though he lost a lot of authority in the fall of 2023 when the charges against him were made public and he was compelled to relinquish his influential position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez resigned from the Senate following his conviction last year.
The trial followed Menendez’s interactions with Egyptian authorities and his attempts to assist three individuals who lavished him with expensive presents that were discovered during a raid on his wife, Nadine, and house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 2022.
During their investigation, FBI officers discovered $480,000 in cash, some of which was hidden within boots and in the couple’s closet pockets. Additionally, they confiscated gold bars estimated to be worth $150,000.
As he sought to safeguard a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian government, prosecutors claimed Menendez had offered his high rank for sale in exchange for this trove of bribes.
Menendez, among other things, ghostwrote a letter to other senators urging them to ease a hold on $300 million in military aid to Egypt and gave Egyptian officials details about the personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
Menendez allegedly tried to convince a federal prosecutor in New Jersey to be kind toward Daibes, a politically powerful real estate developer who was charged with bank fraud, for additional bribes, according to the prosecution.
Another businessman, Jose Uribe, said during the trial that he assisted Nadine Menendez in obtaining a Mercedes-Benz convertible after the senator attempted to persuade state prosecutors to abandon criminal investigations against his associates.
Menendez has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming that he always prioritized American interests and that his contacts with Egyptian officials were typical for the head of the Foreign Relations Committee. He claimed that his wife owned the gold bars and denied accepting any bribes.
After battling breast cancer for the past year, Nadine Menendez will go on trial in March on many of the same allegations as her husband.
Long prison sentences are a justified retribution for this extreme misuse of authority and betrayal of the public trust, according to prosecutors’ court brief.
According to their letter, the defendants participated in a system of foreign influence and corruption that was incredibly bold, extensive, and long-lasting, leading to extremely serious abuses of power at the highest levels of the US government’s legislative branch.
In a presentence submission, Menendez’s attorneys claimed that he had already endured a tremendous deal of suffering.
Senator Menendez’s conviction has, predictably, made him a national joke and denied him all possible financial, professional, and personal advantages, according to a letter from his attorneys. Bob’s long-established reputation is in ruins at the age of 71. His career and finances have been destroyed.
The suspension of Menendez’s legal license will be lifted if his conviction is upheld. There is a threat to his state pension. An elementary school in New Jersey has already banned his name.
According to his attorneys, his once-wide network of friends and political supporters has essentially vanished. While all defendants who are found guilty of serious federal offenses face unavoidable personal and professional repercussions, Senator Menendez has already received comparatively harsher punishment because of his position in several significant ways.
In court documents, the attorneys explained how Menendez dedicated a significant portion of his life to his community and his nation after being traumatized by the early death of his father, who committed suicide when Menendez was 23 years old due to his inability to settle debts from gambling.
of heroic terms, they recounted Menendez’s 50-year career of public service, including his time as mayor of Union City, New Jersey, a state congressman, a member of the U.S. House, and, from 2006 to 2024, a senator.
But he also held the unique distinction of being the only senator from the United States to be indicted twice.
He was accused in 2015 of selling his influence to a wealthy Florida entrepreneur and eye doctor who pampered him with extravagant trips and political donations, according to the prosecution. However, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision in that case. Instead of retrying him, federal prosecutors dropped the case.
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