Cuban-born lawmaker accused of working as an agent for the Egyptian government
▲ The Democratic senator from New Jersey – a staunch defender of the US blockade against Cuba – leaves the federal court in New York, following the ruling against him.Photo Ap
AFP, AP and Reuters
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, July 17, 2024, p. 27
New York. Cuban-born Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, one of the most powerful politicians in Washington, was convicted yesterday of corruption, fraud and working as an agent for the Egyptian government.
A jury found the 70-year-old Democrat elected from the state of New Jersey guilty of 16 charges of bribery, fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice and receiving payments to act as an agent for the Egyptian government and to assist a Qatari fund.
The judge in the case, Sidney H. Stein, is expected to announce the sentence on October 29.
The senator could spend the rest of his life behind bars, as the combined charges carry a maximum sentence of 222 years, according to the court.
Menendez did not testify at the trial, but insisted publicly that he was only doing his job as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Upon leaving the court, Menendez announced that he would appeal the ruling.
In 2022, during a raid on the family home of Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, police found more than $480,000 in cash hidden among clothes and shoes and in a safe, as well as 13 gold bars valued at $150,000, and a Mercedes Benz convertible.
According to prosecutors, the son of Cuban parents who arrived in the United States in the 1950s, before the Cuban revolution, used his power and influence between 2018 and 2022 to help, together with his wife, businessmen Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and José Uribe in exchange for bribes.
The other two co-defendants, Hana and Daibes, were also convicted of bribery.
For federal prosecutor Damian Williams, the sentence showed that what the senator did It was not politics as usual; it was politics for profit.. His years of selling his position to the highest bidder have come to an end.he said in a statement.
It is a resounding fall for the influential politician who resigned from the all-powerful chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee when the affair broke in October last year, although he kept his seat.
Following the announcement of the verdict, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called on Menendez to resign. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who could replace him, also called on the Senate to expel him if he does not resign.
Outcast in the Democratic ranks, the senator announced that he would run in the November elections as an independent.
The case
The discovery of the cash and gold bars in Menendez’s home – he claimed the gold bars belonged to his wife, Nadine, whom he married in 2020 – was the cornerstone of the trial that has put the senator, Hana and Daibes, businessmen from New Jersey, on the bench of the court of the southern district of Manhattan for two months.
A third defendant, José Uribe, pleaded guilty to giving away the $60,000 Mercedes before trial and assisted prosecutors against the senator and his wife, who could not be prosecuted because she suffers from breast cancer.
The senator was charged with 16 of the 18 charges brought against members of the corruption ring. In addition to trying to intervene with the courts to stop legal proceedings against Daibes and Uribe, the senator also allegedly helped Daibes, a successful real estate developer and old friend, to invest in a fund linked to Qatar.
Menendez previously faced corruption charges in 2017 in a case that ended in a mistrial in New Jersey.
Changes in the Court
In other news, President Joe Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including legislative proposals to establish term limits for judges and an enforceable ethics code, according to two people briefed on the plans.
