NEW YORK.- Cuban-born Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, one of the most powerful politicians in Washington, was found guilty on Tuesday of corruption, fraud and working as an agent for the Egyptian government, the court where he was tried confirmed.
A senator since 2006 and a member of the House of Representatives for 14 years before that, Menendez was a fierce opponent of normalizing relations with Cuba, a staunch enemy of Venezuela and China, and a staunch defender of Israel.
According to prosecutors, the 70-year-old New Jersey senator allegedly used his power and influence when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help, along with his wife Nadine Arslanian, businessmen Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and José Uribe, in exchange for bribes.
The other two co-defendants, Hana and Daibes, were also convicted of bribery.
The combined charges carry a maximum potential sentence of 222, 85 and 100 years in prison, respectively, for each defendant, the court said.
The judge in the Sidney H. Stein case has yet to announce the sentence he will impose.
After resigning as chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee when the case broke in October last year, the head of the Democratic majority in the Senate, his fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer, has now asked him to resign from his seat.
“In light of the guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must do the right thing — by his constituents, the Senate and our country — and resign,” Schumer said in a brief statement.
The case
During a search of Menendez’s family home in 2022, police found about $480,000 in cash hidden among clothes and shoes and in a safe, as well as 13 gold bars valued at $150,000, and a Mercedes Benz car.
The discovery was the cornerstone of the trial that has put the senator, Hana and Daibes, businessmen from New Jersey, in the dock of the court of the southern district of Manhattan for two months.
A third defendant, José Uribe, pleaded guilty before trial and cooperated with the prosecution against the senator and his wife, who could not stand trial due to breast cancer.
Prosecutors accused Menendez of “putting his power up for sale” between 2018 and 2022.
More than 30 witnesses were called to trial, with dozens of text messages being some of the evidence presented by the prosecution of a “large-scale corruption scheme.”
The senator was charged with 16 of the 18 charges against members of the plot.
In addition to trying to intervene before the courts to stop legal proceedings against Daibes and Uribe, the senator also allegedly helped the former, an old friend and successful real estate developer, to invest in a fund linked to Qatar.
Source: AFP.