It’s perfectly acceptable for politicians facing criminal charges to declare their innocence and contest their indictments, but claiming without any evidence that the process is politicized undermines justice. The vast majority of cases brought by federal prosecutors are not against politicians and the vast majority of politicians are never changed.
Facing the judge for his sentencing in Manhattan federal court, Bob (Gold Bullion) Menendez whined that he was sorry and he learned his lessons and please don’t lock me up for a long time. After the judge gave him 11 years, Menendez walked outside and said with a much different tone: “But let me just say this whole process has been nothing but a political witch hunt, by the Justice Department’s National Security Division and prosecutors who are more interested in political scalps.”
The former U.S. senator from New Jersey continued: “President Trump is right. This process is political and has been corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system.” He also hopes that President Trump grants him clemency, either a commutation or a full pardon.
If Menendez’s words sound familiar, they are, echoing what the president has said for years about “witch hunts” over the many cases brought against him, in federal and state courts, both criminal and civil.
When Joe Biden wrongly pardoned his convicted son Hunter, he said: “I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” even though Hunter was found guilty by a jury.
And that led Mayor Adams, who is facing his own set of federal charges, to say: “President Biden stated his Justice Department has been politicized. President Trump stated that. I stated that. No American should be going through what I’m going through.”
Adams claims it was his (fully justified) complaints of the Biden White House for its failure to help the city with the hundreds of thousands of migrants who came here that caused his indictment last September.
The facts say otherwise as Manhattan federal prosecutors started looking at Adams in 2021, before he became mayor and before the migrants started arriving.
No one wants to be caught up in a criminal prosecution, from the guilty like Menendez to the pardoned like Hunter Biden to those whose cases were dropped like Trump or still pending like Adams, but prosecutors are required to follow the evidence and the law. And federal judges with lifetime tenure oversee everything.
Trump and Menendez cry “witch hunt” without any proof. And “witch hunt” doesn’t explain how Menendez came into possession of the gold bullion. The jury decided it was a bribe and the judge agreed. Are they also part of the “witch hunt” Bob?
Menendez may succeed in obtaining a Get Out of Jail Free card from Trump, but that doesn’t establish that the prosecution was in any way unfair or unjust. But what it would do, besides spare Menendez his deserved punishment, is erode the public’s confidence that justice is blind and that “equal justice under the law” really means what it says. Which is a lot more important than the outcome of one politician’s case.
