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Sen. Robert Menendez indicted
« on: April 01, 2015, 08:37:20 pm »
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/menendez-expected-to-be-indicted-as-soon-as-wednesday-sources-say/2015/04/01/623024c6-d86e-11e4-8103-fa84725dbf9d_story.html?hpid=z1


Politics
Sen. Robert Menendez indicted

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, may face federal corruption charges related to his dealings with a political donor and friend. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
By Paul Kane and Mike DeBonis April 1 at 4:21 PM

Federal prosecutors unveiled a 14-count indictment Wednesday of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), one of his party’s leading voices on foreign affairs, charging him for official work that tried to benefit an eye doctor who gave the senators many gifts over their decades of friendship.

After a more than two-year investigation, Menendez faces charges for what prosecutors believe were improper efforts by Menendez to help Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based doctor who was also a contributor to Menendez’s campaigns and his longtime friend. Menendez intervened on Melgen’s behalf in a dispute with the federal regulators over Medicare charges and in a bid by Melgen to secure a port security contract in the Dominican Republic.

Menendez, would be only the second U.S. senator to face a federal corruption indictment in the last 20 years. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and suggested that any gifts he received from Melgen were part of a close, personal friendship that dates back to the early 1990s.

Federal prosecutors are also expected to unveil charges against Melgen connected to the gifts-for-favors allegations.



The potential indictment has been telegraphed for almost a month now by officials within the Justice Department, but Menendez’s legal team spent the last few weeks making a furious last-ditch effort to convince Attorney General Eric Holder’s top deputies not to file charges.

The senator has said he has no intention of resigning and plans to stay in office during the trial phase of the case, which could last many months or years. “I’m not going anywhere,” Menendez said at a March 6 news conference

While Congress is amid a two-week recess, the charges against Menendez threaten to upend two matters currently under fierce debate in the Senate.

One is the possible nuclear deal with Iran. As the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking Democrat, Menendez has been the most prominent Democratic voice raising qualms about the ongoing multilateral negotiations. He is the lead Democratic sponsor of a bill -- expected to move forward once the Senate returns April 13 -- that would bring any Iran deal before Congress for a 60-day review.

Menendez said as recently as Sunday, according to a Bloomberg report, that he would oppose a deal leaving Iran with a one-year “breakout” time to build a nuclear weapon.

Last month, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) declined to say whether Menendez should step down from his committee post should charges be filed. While Senate Republicans require members under indictment to temporarily relinquish leadership or top committee posts, Senate Democrats have no such rule.

“Senator Menendez has done a stellar job as chair of the committee, and as far as I am concerned, he’s been an outstanding senator,” Reid said.

The other issue where Menendez could be pivotal is the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch, which has lingered for months. With scores of Republican senators saying they oppose Lynch’s confirmation due to her views supporting President Obama’s immigration policies, every Democratic vote -- plus a potential tie-breaker from Vice President Biden -- could be needed to secure a majority.

Democratic aides said last week that Menendez could refrain from voting on the Lynch confirmation due to the appearance of conflict created by the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation.

Including Menendez’s expected vote for Lynch, Democrats can count on at least 50 votes of support: All 46 members of the Democratic caucus and four Republicans have already indicated their support her. That would leave Biden to cast the tie-breaking vote.

There are still a few Republicans who have not indicated their intentions on the Lynch nomination, so it’s possible she could win confirmation even if Menendez abstained.

Menendez’s case began under some of the most bizarre circumstances, even by the standards of New Jersey politics, where corruption has been a focus of the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark for several decades now.

In 2012, during Menendez’s bid for a second full Senate term, an anonymous tipster using the pseudonym “Pete Williams” reached out to the media and to the FBI to suggest Menendez was seeing underage prostitutes on his Dominican vacations with Melgen. [Pete Williams is the name of the last New Jersey senator to be charged with corruption, the late Harrison “Pete” Williams, who was convicted and expelled from the Senate.]

The prostitution angle fizzled, but investigators began scouring Menendez’s relationship with Melgen.

Twice in recent years – in 2009 and 2012 – Menendez and his top staff spoke directly to top federal health agency officials about their finding that Melgen had overbilled the government by $8.9 million for care at his clinic. Menendez repeatedly questioned whether federal auditors had been fair in their assessment of Melgen’s billing for eye injections to treat macular degeneration. His office said he questioned the fairness and consistency of the federal agency in its decision-making with all doctors, not just Melgen.

But Melgen was a man whose personal life also drew scrutiny. He was seen at times with dates while entertaining Menendez near his vacation home in the Dominican Republic.

Menendez also appeared to use his position to help Melgen after the doctor became the chief investor in a company holding a long-dormant port security contract in the Dominican Republic. The contract called for paying lucrative fees for security screening of ships coming into the port.

In the summer of 2012, as Melgen donated $700,000 to support the senator and other Democrats, Menendez pressed for the United States to push the Dominican Republic to put the contract into effect. In a July Senate hearing he scheduled on Latin American businesses, Menendez urged officials from the Commerce and State departments to apply pressure to countries that didn’t honor agreements with U.S. businesses. Without naming Melgen, Menendez highlighted the contract to provide security in the Dominican port.
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Offline musiclady

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Re: Sen. Robert Menendez indicted
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2015, 08:42:29 pm »
Quote
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

I'm in shock after reading only a few words of this article.

The WAPO identifying one of its own as being corrupt?

Hell hath surely frozen over!
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline Relic

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Re: Sen. Robert Menendez indicted
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2015, 08:47:39 pm »
I'm in shock after reading only a few words of this article.

The WAPO identifying one of its own as being corrupt?

Hell hath surely frozen over!

He didn't properly worship Obama, and so, he must be punished.

Political class protections can disappear in the case of retribution.

Offline flowers

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Re: Sen. Robert Menendez indicted
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2015, 08:48:45 pm »
I'm in shock after reading only a few words of this article.

The WAPO identifying one of its own as being corrupt?

Hell hath surely frozen over!
Oh my...how the mighty have fallen!  Yet no charges of him being a pedophile.


Offline musiclady

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Re: Sen. Robert Menendez indicted
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2015, 09:02:49 pm »
He didn't properly worship Obama, and so, he must be punished.

Political class protections can disappear in the case of retribution.

A point I wasn't considering.

No honor among thieves, and all that......
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline musiclady

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Re: Sen. Robert Menendez indicted
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2015, 09:03:25 pm »
Oh my...how the mighty have fallen!  Yet no charges of him being a pedophile.

Is pedophilia a crime to the left??  :smokin:
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.