Sen. Bob Menendez and wife indicted on bribery charges; DOJ seizes gold bars and $500,000 | CNN Politics
Sen. Bob Menendez and wife indicted on bribery charges; DOJ seizes gold bars and $500,000 | CNN Politics
He did it wrong, you just have to call them "lobbyists," and have them donate to your campaign or your PAC, (without coordination, nudge-nudge,) and it's all legal.
That's not how you get the actual personal spending money though. You set up yourself with a cush retirement job lobbying in between when you hold office, speaking fee agreements, jobs for friends and all sorts of other people who now feel indebted to you, business opportunities that wouldn't be available to others. All those can be legal if done right, under current laws.
IMO Citizens United is what brought US Politics to where we are today. Legalized money laundering and influence purchasing are apt descriptors. The sheer flood of money since CU catapulted us into the era of massive ad and social media spending.
The SCOTUS corruption is seriously disturbing though. There seems to be zero appetite from the Justice Dept., Executive or Legislative branches to rock the boat. The media keeps bringing the stories and all the public gets are tepid remarks and half-hearted investigation announcements.
Well he had literal gold bars in his house, so I would say that as long as you don't have people dropping of literal gold bars and bags with Dollar Signs on them, most of the rest of the Senate is safe.
Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals
I get that you have to pretend that you're innocent, but this is the same race-baiting conspiracy bullshit that comes out of the right-wing wackos. Fuck this guy.
Plus he's been caught for this previously
Seems Horseshoe Theory applies to indictment responses too.
Horseshoe theory, while an interesting idea, has not geld up well once political scientists started looking into it.
I get you're joking but it's an idea that needs to die.
Got legit evidence? Good, then lock his ass up.
(See conservatives, not that hard to do...)
Lmao gold bars…? That’s like some cartoon villain shit.
But no handlebar mustache? For shame!
And envelopes full of money in jacket pockets. It just sounds made up.
I'm not saying it is made up, it just sounds like something from a sitcom or a cartoon. If this guy's this corrupt, he should be locked up.
I wonder what this is really about.
I have no doubt that the corruption is real, but that's sort of beside the point, since corruption is essentially universal in Washington. There has to be some reason that they focused on him specifically when they legitimately could charge pretty much anyone and everyone. Charging one Washington politician with corruption is sort of like charging one Burning Man attendee with drug possession.
Maybe someone didn't get their cut so they talked to the feds.
He's been tried in the Senate previously for accepting bribes.
Right, but that doesn't answer my question. If anything, it makes me more curious, since this isn't the first time he's been singled out for doing the same thing that virtually all of them do as a matter of course.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing - quite the contrary. Charging (and preferably removing from office and imprisoning) corrupt politicians is not only a good thing, but arguably the single best thing we could do as a nation right now. Official corruption is at the heart of virtually every single ill that this country currently suffers.
But it's notably a thing that's almost never prosecuted, in spite of the fact that it's not only widespread, but often brazen.
So again, I'm just curious what's special about him - why a government that generally turns a blind eye to corruption has chosen to prosecute this particular instance of it.
He can share a cell with Donny.
Great. You've shown us the "DoJ Gate" works fine for both sides of the aisle.
Now do the republican traitors.
how can he still be in office. My people, please vote for someone else in a primary.
Maybe you are starting to see the problem with a two-party "democratic" system where parties control ballot access. That is you have no choice about who you want to run.
He runs unopposed in NJ because positions in the Senate are based on seniority. It rarely makes sense to replace a senator with experience.
Cool democracy, can't wait to vote even harder next election.
I see we're setting up for the next chain of "just one more democrat, they cant do anything until then"
Dems got a shit ton done in Biden's first two years, despite having a conservative Democrat as a gatekeeper. But saying they could have gotten so much more done with 50 liberals is just fact.
They done a lot of canceling out shit. Climate bill with oil and gas drilling boosts, economic gains for only the wealthy executive class while snuffing out collective bargaining, and just total disregard for the poorest Americans, welching on promises of things like healthcare.
Climate change has been accelerated, college continues to drift away as a possibility, inflation prices are racking stagnant wages. Roe v Wade got repealed. Just nothing good has been happening.
And it always gets blamed on the scapegoat. First it was joe lieberman, then manchin, now we're setting up for the next one.
Cool. Now do the Clarence twins.
He literally Googled how much a kilogram of gold is worth
For those who are interested, one kilogram of gold is currently worth about $60,000
damnit, now I have virtually no chance of becoming a senator, thanks a lot.
Nothing illegal about Googling the value of a gold bar. (/s)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Prosecutors allege the bribes included gold, cash, home mortgage payments, compensation for a “low-or-no-show job” and a luxury vehicle.
Senate Democratic Caucus rules will force Menendez to step aside as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but he can still serve on the panel.
Beginning in April, his wife sold gold bars worth as much as $400,000, according to the senator’s most recent financial disclosure form.
The conspiracy counts also charge his wife Nadine, and three people described as New Jersey associates and businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.
Yet Hana met Menendez in his office along with others, including an Egyptian intelligence official, in May 2019, asking for help fending off the US agency’s opposition.
Two days later, Menendez allegedly called an Agriculture Department official, asking them to stop opposing Hana’s venture.
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