Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in jail Wednesday for accepting bribes of money and gold bars and serving as an agent of Egypt as he offered affect to businessmen keen to take advantage of his political energy.
U.S. District Decide Sidney H. Stein in Manhattan introduced the sentence after Menendez tearfully addressed the decide, saying he’d misplaced all the pieces he cared about, aside from his spouse.
“You were successful, powerful, you stood at the apex of our political system,” the decide stated. ”Someplace alongside the best way, and I don’t know when it was, you misplaced your method and dealing for the general public good grew to become working to your good.”
Prosecutors had requested a 15-year jail time period for the Democrat who was convicted of a number of expenses together with appearing as an agent for Egypt for promoting his once-considerable clout in Washington for bribes value tons of of hundreds of {dollars}.
Given an opportunity to talk earlier than he was sentenced, Menendez broke down a number of occasions as he described his accomplishments.
Bob Menendez arrives to federal court docket on Jan. 29 in New York.
“You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence,” Menendez advised Stein as he stood earlier than him along with his palms in his pockets, besides when he wiped his face with a tissue.
“Your honor, I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions,” he added. “I’ve done far more good than bad. I ask you, your honor, to judge me in that context.”
Lawyer Adam Price advised Stein to offer Menendez credit score for a “lifetime of extraordinary public service and personal sacrifices.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as gold bar Bob,” Price stated.
Menendez’s attorneys had stated previous to the sentencing that their consumer deserves lower than two years in jail, citing his many years of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to turn into “the epitome of the American Dream.”
However Price stated the protection group determined to ask that Menendez get not more than eight years after listening to Stein earlier within the day give substantial jail phrases to 2 New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator. Fred Daibes, an actual property developer, received seven years and a $1.75 million high quality. Wael Hana, an entrepreneur, received eight years a $1.25 million high quality and was ordered to forfeit $125,000.
Fred Daibes, a New Jersey businessman convicted of paying bribes to Bob Menendez arrives at federal court docket on Jan. 29 in New York.
Previous to the announcement of his sentence, Daibes, 67, tearfully advised Stein the jury verdict had left him “borderline suicidal,” and requested leniency in order that he might take care of his 30-year-old autistic son.
Hana advised the decide, “I’m an harmless man.”
“I by no means bribed Senator Menendez or requested his workplace for affect.”
The decide, although, stated the jury’s verdict was “very, very substantial.”
A 3rd businessman pleaded responsible and testified towards Menendez at a trial final yr.
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction final yr, although he misplaced a lot of his energy in fall 2023 when the fees towards him have been revealed and he was compelled to give up his highly effective submit as chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee.
The trial traced Menendez’s dealings with Egyptian officers and his quest to assist three males who showered him with profitable presents discovered throughout a 2022 raid on the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, residence he shared along with his spouse, Nadine.
FBI brokers who searched the home discovered $480,000, a few of it stuffed inside boots and the pockets of clothes hung within the couple’s closets. In addition they seized gold bars value an estimated $150,000.
Prosecutors stated Menendez had “put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” together with by serving Egypt’s pursuits as he labored to guard a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian authorities.
Amongst different issues, Menendez supplied Egyptian officers with details about the employees on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to carry a maintain on $300 million in army support to Egypt.
Prosecutors stated that for different bribes, Menendez tried to influence a federal prosecutor in New Jersey to go straightforward on Daibes, a politically influential actual property developer accused of financial institution fraud.
Wael Hana arrives at Manhattan federal court docket for his sentencing on a bribery conviction on Jan. 29 in New York.
And on the trial, one other businessman, Jose Uribe, testified that he helped Nadine Menendez get a Mercedes-Benz convertible after the senator sought to strain state prosecutors to drop felony probes of his associates.
Menendez has insisted that he’s harmless of any crime, saying repeatedly that his interactions with Egyptian officers have been regular for the pinnacle of the Overseas Relations Committee, and that he all the time put American pursuits first. He denied taking any bribes and stated the gold bars belonged to his spouse.
Nadine Menendez faces trial in March on lots of the similar expenses as her husband after spending the final yr battling breast most cancers.
Menendez’s attorneys, in a presentence submission, stated he had already suffered enormously.
“Unsurprisingly, Senator Menendez’s conviction has rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit,” his attorneys wrote. “Bob is now 71, along with his long-built fame in tatters. He has suffered monetary {and professional} smash.”
In court docket papers, the attorneys described how Menendez devoted a lot of his life to his nation and his neighborhood after he was scarred by the early lack of his father, who killed himself when Menendez was 23 after he was unable to repay playing money owed.
They described a 50-year historical past of public service in heroic phrases, tracing a profession during which Menendez was mayor of Union Metropolis, New Jersey, a state lawmaker, a member of the U.S. Home after which a senator from 2006 to 2024.
But he additionally had the excellence of being the one U.S. senator indicted twice.
In 2015, he was charged with promoting his affect to a rich Florida eye physician and entrepreneur who prosecutors stated lavished him with luxurious holidays and marketing campaign contributions. However the jury in that case could not attain a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors dropped the case somewhat than put him on trial once more.
