An emotional Senator Bob Menendez took to the upper chamber floor on Tuesday to denounce what he called “persecution” by the Justice Department following new corruption allegations tying him to a Qatar-based real estate investment firm linked to the country’s royal family.
“The United States Attorney’s Office is not engaged in prosecution, but persecution. They are looking for victory, but not justice,” Menendez (D-NJ) declared his second successor in the Southern District of New York.
“By filing three indictments – one in late September, the second a few weeks later in mid-October and the third just last week in early January – it allowed the government to keep the sensational story in the press, it poisoned the jury. pool and it aims to convict me in the court of public opinion,” he added.
“In doing so, the government’s tactics harmed not only me, but all of you, my colleagues, the political establishment, and most importantly the voters of New Jersey.”
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) took to the upper chamber floor on Tuesday to denounce his “persecution” by the Justice Department following new corruption allegations. C-SPAN
The Sept. 12 indictment cataloged the Democratic senator and his wife as allegedly accepting bribes — including 13 gold bars, more than $566,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible — from three wealthy Garden State businessmen.
On October 12, subsequent charges charged that Menendez used his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to act as an agent of the Egyptian government.
Prosecutors said Menendez received some of the cash and gold after introducing real estate developer Fred Daibes to members of Qatar’s ruling family in 2021, so Daibes could make deals with Doha-related firms, the indictment supersedes Jan. 2.
The indictment catalogs the Democratic senator and his wife allegedly receiving bribes — including 13 gold bars, more than $566,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. AP
Daibes and other businessmen — Wael Hana and Jose Uribe — are named as co-defendants in each indictment, along with Menendez’s wife, Nadine. The senator has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“There is no evidence of giving or receiving cash and gold bars. In fact, there has been and will be a hearing, a full explanation of the truth about those issues,” Menendez said imprecisely in his Senate floor speech.
“Almost everyone, including my friend in the newspaper who reported it, did not read the allegations,” he also falsely claimed. “They’re just taking the government’s sensationalist narrative of what the allegations are as the truth.”
“The United States Attorney’s Office is not engaged in prosecution, but persecution. They seek victory, but not justice,” Mendendez declared in the second indictment that replaced him. Reuters
The allegations have all been unsealed and are publicly available, while other reports have confirmed that the serial number on a gold bar the FBI took from Menendez’s home in June 2022 matched another bar number previously stolen from Daibes’ Edgewater residence in 2013.
Envelopes containing cash seized at Menendez’s home were also found to have Daibes’ driver’s fingerprints on them, according to the first unsealed indictment.
A representative for Menendez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Menendez allegedly received cash and gold after introducing New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes, one of the businessmen, to members of the Qatari royal family in 2021. AP
The 70-year-old in his speech also dismissed the charge of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government as another “outrageous charge”, claiming that prosecutors had argued the actions of lawmakers who “attract investment and economic opportunities to their country will now become a crime .”
“It opens a dangerous door for the Department of Justice to take ordinary members of Congress’ involvement with a foreign government and to turn that involvement into charges of being a foreign agent of that government,” he said.
The New Jersey Democrat further denied he was “taking over Egypt” given his record holding the Cairo government responsible for human rights abuses and his case showing “broad” charges could be filed against any government official under the Foreign Agents Act Registry.
“There is no evidence of the giving or receiving of cash and gold bars,” Menendez said imprecisely in his Senate floor speech. AP
“When a member of the Senate from an agricultural country goes to Communist Cuba to sell rice or chicken or sugar or beef, and is told by the Castro regime that they will consider doing so but the senator has to convince the US administration to change US law and lift the embargo and allowing credit to occur for such sales – and then returning to the United States and supporting the request – that makes them foreign agents of Cuba,” he suggested.
“I am innocent, and I intend to prove my innocence, not just for me, but for the precedent this case will set for you and the next member of the Senate,” exclaimed Menendez, saying he would once again ignore calls for impeachment. his position. even coming from fellow Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.).
“I suffered a lot from what they did,” she continued, choking with emotion. “After 50 years of service, this is not the way I want to celebrate my golden jubilee. But I have never violated people’s trust. I have become a patriot for my country.”
If convicted on all charges, Menendez faces almost as much time in federal prison as he has served in public office.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
