Former Sen. Bob Menendez to be sentenced in gold bar bribery case
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Former Sen. Bob Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison
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Above: Former US senator Bob Menendez leaves Manhattan Federal Court after his sentencing in New York, US, on Jan. 29, 2025. Image copyright: Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu/Contributor via Getty Images
The Facts
Bob Menendez, the former Democrat senator for New Jersey, was sentenced to 11 years in prison at a federal court in New York City on Wednesday.
It came after Menendez, formerly a chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was found guilty on 16 charges — including bribery, extortion, acting as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice, and several counts of conspiracy — at a trial that concluded in July last year.
During his trial, prosecutors said Menendez took bribes in the form of gold bars, $480K in cash, and a Mercedez Benz from the governments of Qatar and Egypt, as well as three businessmen from New Jersey. He was also ordered to forfeit $992,188.10 in ill-gotten income.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
This was brazen corruption to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Very few senators have ever been convicted on such charges, and of those, none went as far as Menendez. What's worse is that he started accepting these bribes immediately after the Senate Ethics Committee admonished him for similar actions in 2018. He deserves the sentence he received.
Establishment-critical narrative
The trial against Menendez was a sham, and was conducted using illegal evidence and a witness who lied on the stand to avoid facing his own criminal proceedings. Only the Southern District of New York would allow such a politically motivated case.
