Democrat Bob Menendez was discovered responsible on 16 expenses in a sprawling bribery scheme to profit a overseas nation
Former US Senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in jail on bribery and corruption expenses after being discovered responsible of accepting money and gold bars and performing as an unlawful agent for the Egyptian authorities.
The New Jersey Democrat was convicted final July and resigned from the Senate a month later reasonably than face expulsion. He beforehand chaired the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, the place he was identified for championing stringent sanctions on Russia, amongst different insurance policies.
“The general public can’t be led to the idea you can get away with bribery, fraud, and betrayal,” US District Decide Sidney Stein stated on Wednesday. “I don’t know what led you to this,” Stein added. “You’ll must attempt to determine that out your self over time.”
Prosecutors had sought at the very least 15 years in jail, together with tens of millions of {dollars} in forfeitures and fines, arguing that such penalties had been mandatory “to offer simply punishment for this extraordinary abuse of energy and betrayal of public belief.”
Menendez is the primary US senator convicted of performing as an agent of a overseas authorities.
“For somebody who spent his complete life in public service, on daily basis I’m awake is a punishment,” the previous lawmaker advised the court docket.
Menendez started his political profession in 1974 when he was elected to the Union Metropolis Board of Schooling. He later served as town’s mayor from 1986 to 1992, then moved to the state legislature in 1988 and the state senate in 1991. He represented New Jersey’s thirteenth district within the US Home of Representatives from 1993 to 2006, when he was appointed to the Senate.
Menendez stepped down from his place as head of the Senate’s influential Overseas Relations Committee after the preliminary expenses had been filed in September 2023, the place he had performed a key position in drawing up Washington’s sanctions on Moscow even earlier than the escalation of the Ukraine battle in February 2022.
His lawyer, Adam Charge, argued that the previous senator’s practically 50 years of public service shouldn’t be overshadowed by his conviction, dismissing the general public’s characterization of him as “Gold Bar Bob.” The protection workforce additionally requested that Menendez stay out of jail whereas they attraction his conviction.
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