New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez has been indicted along with his wife and three other defendants in the Southern District of New York. The detailed three-count indictment runs to 39 pages and alleges a bribery scheme benefiting Menendez and his wife in exchange for official acts undertaken by the senator. The prosecutors seek forfeiture involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and numerous gold bars seized from a safe in the Menendez home in Englewood Cliffs, the home itself, more cash seized from a bank safe deposit box, and a Mercedes Benz c300.
The New York Times has posted the indictment here. It includes photographs depicting the allegedly ill-gotten gains. At the moment the Times story on the present indictment only takes up political ramifications while mentioning Menendez’s history of beating a previous corruption rap, but the present indictment tells a shocking story in its own right.
The indictment alleges that Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using the senator’s influence to benefit the three other codefendants and the Egyptian government. I can only say I find it hard to believe that, having beaten the rap once, Menendez would be so incautious and so corrupt.
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