In a court docket of legislation, defendants are entitled to a presumption of innocence. Within the court docket of public opinion, Senator Bob Menendez enjoys no such indulgence.
The Democrat from New Jersey was once indicted lately—in conjunction with his spouse, Nadine, and 3 others—on 3 counts of corruption. Federal prosecutors say the crowd authorized loads of 1000’s of greenbacks of bribes to lend a hand the Egyptian authorities. Amongst different allegations, they are saying Menendez gave delicate U.S.-government data to the Egyptians and attempted to defend two of the defendants from prosecution.
This isn’t the primary federal corruption case in opposition to Menendez, and his endured illustration of his state within the Senate and as head of the tough International Family members Committee (a minimum of up till lately: Menendez stepped down from the chairmanship after his indictment) are a testomony to the pusillanimity of Democrats. The inside track additionally presentations how the heated partisanship of the present generation can stay dangerous politicians in administrative center for worry of serving to the opposite birthday party.
The indictment contains claims that New York correctly characterizes as “cartoonish.” In Menendez’s closet, FBI brokers discovered envelopes stuffed with money within the wallet of jackets that had Menendez’s title sewn on them. Additionally they grew to become up greater than $100,000 price of gold bars, like in some kind of harebrained Yosemite Sam scheme. (For excellent measure, the bars are stamped Swiss Financial institution Company.) Prosecutors additionally cite texts from Nadine to Bob Menendez complaining {that a} co-defendant, Wael Hana, had now not paid the bribes he’d promised. And prosecutors allege the senator agreed to derail a prosecution in trade for a Mercedes C-300 convertible. The record is, in all probability remember that, a compelling learn.
If corruption allegations in opposition to Bob Menendez sound acquainted, that’s now not simply since you’re aware of the fresh historical past of different Democratic senators from New Jersey. In 2015, Menendez was once indicted by way of federal prosecutors for a sweeping bribery scheme, along a health care provider named Salomon Melgen.
The proof in opposition to Menendez gave the impression compelling, however he were given a fortunate damage: In the middle of his trial, the U.S. Very best Court docket threw out a corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a Republican, a call that, Matt Ford wrote, “essentially modified the usual for bribery.” The jury hung, the Justice Division disregarded fees, and Menendez were given off with a serious admonition from the Senate Ethics Committee. (Melgen was once later convicted and sentenced to 17 years in jail for Medicare fraud. Donald Trump commuted his sentence in certainly one of his final acts as president, crediting Melgen’s “generosity in treating all sufferers particularly the ones not able to pay or not able to find the money for health-care insurance coverage”—for your dime.)
By means of then, because the journalist Dick Polman wrote in The Atlantic, Menendez had “escaped extra scrapes than Houdini,” and his title was once “synonymous with moral lapses.” The instant would have gave the impression proper for Democrats to be rid of Menendez. No longer best was once he a moral legal responsibility in his personal proper, however his presence additionally undercut the corruption accusations the birthday party was once accommodation in opposition to Trump. However they didn’t need to expel him from the Senate, as a result of New Jersey’s governor on the time, Chris Christie, is a Republican, and may have appointed a Republican to the seat. So Menendez stayed, and in 2018 was once reelected to the Senate.
Some other folks may lay low for some time after a fortuitous break out from the legislation, however prosecutors say Menendez promptly went again to doing corruption in spring 2018, across the time of his censure. The scheme was once helped by way of the truth that in February 2018, simply after fees had been dropped, Menendez become the highest Democrat at the Senate International Family members Committee. 3 years later, when Democrats retook the Senate, he become the chair. That gave him a really perfect place to make use of his energy to learn Egypt.
Menendez says he’s blameless, and launched a sizzling commentary this morning. “For years, forces in the back of the scenes have many times tried to silence my voice and dig my political grave,” he mentioned. “Since this investigation was once leaked just about a yr in the past, there was an lively smear marketing campaign of nameless resources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety the place none exists. The excesses of those prosecutors is obvious.”
He added: “The ones in the back of this marketing campaign … see me as a drawback in the best way in their broader political objectives.” That sounds so much like Trump’s “I’m being indicted for you,” and his claims that he’s the objective of retribution by way of the “deep state.” Menendez’s protests are exhausting to take significantly for the reason that New Jersey is administered by way of Democrats and the president is a Democrat (regardless that Menendez isn’t an in depth friend of Biden’s), however voicing those arguments may lend a hand validate Trump’s protection in opposition to his personal indictments, simply as Menendez’s presence undermined the political case in opposition to Trump in 2018. However Democrats will have best behind schedule their headache, as a result of Menendez is up for reelection in 2024. His travails may give Republicans a possibility at taking his seat.
Menendez’s survival has left New Jerseyans, and American citizens, with an ethically compromised senator, as a result of Democrats had been afraid that eliminating him would produce a Republican senator—one thing they seen as even worse. Lately’s politics is suffused with what political scientists name damaging partisanship—the phenomenon the place partisans are extra motivated by way of worry and loathing of the opposite birthday party than affection or affinity for their very own. On this method, Menendez’s indictment echoes the 2024 presidential election too, wherein every birthday party is poised to appoint a candidate according to the conclusion that he’s the only perfect located to defeat the opposite facet—now not for his personal skills or personality. Are there worse issues than dropping an election? The Menendez prosecution may be offering one resolution to that query.