U.S. District Judge Sidney sentenced former New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison after a jury found the 71-year-old guilty of bribery, fraud, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
Menendez faced 18 federal charges, including bribery, extortion, fraud, acting as a foreign agent, and obstruction.
From The Associated Press:
“You were successful, powerful, you stood at the apex of our political system,” the judge said. ”Somewhere along the way, and I don’t know when it was, you lost your way and working for the public good became working for your good.”Menendez’s actions, the judge said, feeds the cynicism of voters.“What’s been the result?” he said, noting a lengthy investigation of a five-year crime. “You lost your senate seat. You lost your chairmanship and you lost your good name.”Menendez, 71, who tearfully told the judge in court that he was chastened, was defiant when he stepped before cameras at a bank of microphones outside the Manhattan courthouse, saying: “I am innocent.”
The New York Post quoted the judge: “Somewhere along the way, you became, I’m sorry to say, a corrupt politician.”
The Southern District of New York charged Menendez and his wife Nadine with allegedly accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes” to protect three New Jersey businessmen and work on behalf of Egypt.
At the time, Menendez chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The feds accused the Menendezes “accepted cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value.”
“Gold Bar” Bob vowed to appeal.
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