Justice Dept intends to re-try Menendez in corruption case

[I B Hankering]

Justice Dept intends to re-try Menendez in corruption case

The Justice Department announced Friday that they intend to re-try Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on corruption charges after a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial in November.

“Defendants Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen have been indicted for bribery and corruption by two separate grand juries properly empaneled in the District of New Jersey,” the department said in a notice filed in U.S. District Court....

Prosecutors allege that Menendez engaged in a bribery scheme with co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a longtime friend, doing political favors for him in exchange for luxury hotel stays and campaign donations.

Menendez took trips on the doctor’s private jet, vacations in Paris and the Dominican Republic and $750,000 in campaign contributions, the government said in the court proceedings.

In exchange, prosecutors charged, the New Jersey Democrat helped Melgen’s foreign mistresses secure visas, intervened in a multimillion-dollar Medicare dispute and pressured U.S. officials to safeguard a lucrative port security contract in the Dominican Republic...

Melgen was convicted last year in a separate Medicare fraud case in Florida. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year sentence for the 63-year-old eye doctor, though Melgen is seeking leniency.

Menendez is up for reelection in 2018. He is widely expected to seek another term in office, though he has not made a formal announcement about his plans.

(The Hill)

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[WTF]

I wish they would charge them all. Politics is a sleazy game where large campaign contributions are nothing but bribes.

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[dilbert firestorm]

why havven't they charged him with underage sex?

[garhkal]

Good. Let's hope this time they don't get a bunch of idiots on the jury.

[I B Hankering]

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Nov. 30 — just days after the mistrial — found a majority of New Jersey voters said Menendez should not be reelected. Forty-nine percent of respondents said Menendez should resign.

(WaPo)

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