The 68-page indictment of US Sen. Bob Menendez
By Tracey Eaton (alongthemalecon.blogspot.com)
HAVANA TIMES —Sen. Bob Menéndez really knows how to take care his pals, especially his wealthy doctor friend Salomon Melgen, according to a 68-page indictment.
The indictment states:
Melgen offered and gave, and Menéndez solicited and accepted from Melgen, things of value, including domestic and international flights on private jets, first-class domestic airfare, use of a Caribbean villa, access to an exclusive Dominican resort, a stay at a luxury hotel in Paris, expensive meals, golf outings, and tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to a legal defense fund.
Melgen offered and gave, and Menéndez solicited and accepted from Melgen, hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions to entities that benefitted Menéndez’s 2012 Senate campaign, in exchange for requested exercises of Menéndez’s offcial authority.
The indictment further states that Menéndez helped Melgen get a visa for his Brazilian girlfriend, and Melgen helped pay her expenses at the University in Miami through his foundation, aimed at meeting the educational needs of “disadvantaged persons.”
Related:
The Menéndez File
Corrupt politicians and hardball politics? So what else is new?
I don’t have any opinion on the guilt or innocence of Senator Menendez. For decades, New Jersey has had a reputation for corrupt politicians. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t.
However, it does strike me as a curious coincidence that this announcement came down just as the US and Cuba were starting negotiations and a week before Obama made his nuclear deal with Iran. As a ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez was highly critical of the Obama administration on both those issues.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has declined to prosecute other notoriously corrupt politicians such as Harry Reid, of Nevada (who seriously believes his story that he injured his face on New years Eve, when a piece of exercise equipment malfunctioned?)
Nor will they prosecute the IRS official, Lois Lerner, for perjury when she lied to a congressional investigation panel over the use of the IRS to target conservative political groups.
Nor will they prosecute Hillary Clinton for using the Clinton Foundation to fly “friends” and wealthy donors all over the place, nor for using her own personal email server to conduct State Department business, and which she had the hard drives wiped after they were subpoenaed, nor for using her own personal private intelligence consultants to cover her ass on the Benghazi fiasco, nor for her repeated and transparent lies attempting to excuse and cover-up her serial mendacity.
On these & other corrupt Democrats, the Department of Justice is still and the liberal media is silent as the grave. But as the one Democrat who stepped out of line, Senator Menendez gets thrown under the bus.
It’s politics Obama style: Chicago rules.