Former Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison Wednesday for a brazen bribery scheme that saw him put his political influence up for sale in exchange for stockpiles of cash, gold bullion bars, and other lavish gifts after tearfully pleading with the judge for mercy.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Sidney Stein imposed the sentence at a packed hearing, where the longtime lawmaker and his lawyers implored the court not to send him to prison for the rest of his life, saying that although he was now known as “gold bar Bob,” he deserved leniency for his “tireless” work as a public servant for half a century.
Menendez’s co-defendants, Hana and Fred Daibes, who were found guilty of related offenses at the trial, were also sentenced Wednesday to eight years, a month, and seven years, respectively. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, is set to go on trial in March.
Before the term was handed down, a trembling Menendez addressed the court in tears, telling Stein of the work he was most proud of.
“Judge, other than family, I have lost everything I ever cared about. For someone who spent his entire life in public service, every day I’m awake is a punishment,” Menendez said, citing instances of his public service.
“I ask you, your honor, to judge me in that context and to temper your sword of justice with the mercy of a lifetime of duty.”
A jury found Menendez guilty in July of taking almost half a million dollars in cash, $150,000 worth of gold bars, a luxury convertible for his wife, flashy watches, and Formula 1 tickets in exchange for abusing his position as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Evidence at his nine-week trial showed that from 2018 to 2023, Menendez took cash and a luxury convertible for his wife in exchange for coercing the highest levels of New Jersey state law enforcement to kill a criminal investigation into an associate; took tens of thousands of dollars from Daibes to advance a formal resolution praising Qatar and also attempted to influence a pending federal prosecution of Daibes in New Jersey, and other corrupt arrangements.
Prosecutors had requested Menendez serve a minimum of 15 years prison time for his conviction, the first of a senator for abusing their leadership on a Senate committee and the first of anyone for serving as a foreign agent while being a public official. They said a steep sentence was warranted to deter other lawmakers from engaging in similar conduct.
The feds called Menendez’s scheme one “of stunning brazenness, breadth, and duration, resulting in exceptionally grave abuses of power at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch of the United States Government.”
“Even leaving aside their historical rarity, the defendants’ crimes amount to an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch, to corrupt the nation’s core sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement,” the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office wrote to Stein before sentencing.
“Menendez corruptly promised to influence national security, including this country’s provision of large quantities of lethal military aid. He corruptly divulged, to a foreign government, sensitive non-public information that could put at risk U.S. and foreign nationals serving at an embassy abroad.”
Adam Fee, Menendez’s lawyer, had asked the judge to weigh “the good and the bad” of Menendez’s history and impose no more than eight years in prison, citing his decades of public service before the bribery scheme.
Stein received 130 letters from people advocating that the former senator serve a lenient term, including clergy members, foreign dignitaries, and community groups.
“The good outweighs the bad in the arc of Bob’s life,” Fee said. “People are complicated. If our worst moments defined us and overshadowed whatever other light we had put out into the world, many of us, including me, would not be here today.”
Fee said Menendez had “fallen down” and made decisions that cost him “dearly,” but that the term sought by prosecutors was overly harsh. He spoke about a “scrappy” young Menendez supporting his parents, Cuban immigrants, as a teen and his testimony in a bulletproof vest as a young adult at the corruption trial of Union City Mayor William Must.
He said a sentence above a decade meant the federal Bureau of Prisons would not send him to a minimum security prison, exposing him “to a dramatically higher risk of danger” as a high-profile inmate.
“He is a good and honorable man that has made mistakes that he will regret and pay for for the rest of his life,” Fee said, asking Stein for “compassion.”
This developing story will be updated.
Originally Published:
