By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 13th, 2015
The Justice Department may soon file corruption charges against Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member, CNN stated on March 6th.
The news network declared that if charges are filed, Menendez would be accused of trading his congressional influence for favors from Dr. Salomon Melgen – an eye specialist and a major Menendez donor.
A formal announcement on the matter may not occur for weeks. But Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to quickly move ahead with the case, as some of the possible charges may soon be voided by a statute of limitations, stated CNN.
Menendez’s office was quick to deny any wrongdoing.
“As we have said before, we believe all of the Senator’s actions have been appropriate and lawful and the facts will ultimately confirm that. Any actions taken by Senator Menendez or his office have been to appropriately address public policy issues and not for any other reason,” Menendez Communications Director Tricia Enright declared in a statement.
The statement also directly addressed the nature of the friendship between the senator and the doctor, insisting that the relationship is an old one and is deeper than a mere political convenience.
“The Senator has counted Dr. Melgen as one of his closest personal friends for decades. The two have spent holidays together and have gone to each other’s family funerals and weddings and have exchanged personal gifts,” stated Enright.
“As has been reported, the start of this investigation is suspect. We know many false allegations have been made about this matter, allegations that were ultimately publicly discredited. We also know that the official investigation of this matter is ongoing, and therefore cannot address allegations being made anonymously,” added the communications director.
This is not the first time that the senator’s friendship with Dr. Melgen has been called into question. In January 2013, Dr. Melgen’s office was “raided by FBI agents,” who apparently were investigating “allegations that the doctor may have provided Menendez with free trips to the Dominican Republic, as well as prostitutes while he was there,” according to a 2013 article published by OpenSecrets.org.
Later that year, the Senate Ethics Committee began to probe into the allegations. Menendez acknowledged that he had accepted two privately chartered jet flights from Dr. Melgen, though he insisted the lack of payment was due to ‘administrative mistakes’. As part of a public mea culpa, the senator shelled out almost $60,000 of his own money to pay for the two private jet flights.
CNN has stated that the Justice Department charges against Menendez may come down around the first part of April.
But things aren’t quite over on this matter just yet. On Capitol Hill, there perhaps predictably “is more skepticism surrounding the nature of the expected indictment then there is indignation against Menendez,” National Journal pointed out on Wednesday.
“I mean, this is just way too premature,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who also sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told National Journal.
“We have a leaked report to a media outlet that is totally insubstantial, in my view, to require us to have any conversations about next steps, ” added Murphy.
It’s entirely possible that fellow Democrats in Congress feel that Sen. Menendez is being unfairly treated in the public eye. But it’s also possible that they would rather not talk too much about Dr. Melgen’s political donations, since throughout the years the Melgen family has been a generous donor to Democrats with congressional ambitions.
“Melgen and his family members have given more than $426,000 in campaign donations since 1992,” OpenSecrets.org pointed out in 2013.
The Melgen family handed over “$60,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, an organization that Menendez chaired from 2009 to 2011,” according to OpenSecrets.org.
“The family also gave $50,000 to the New Jersey Democratic State Committee,” added the news source.
But “the single largest recipient of money was the DNC, which received $63,000 from the family,” continued OpenSecrets.org.
And that’s not all…
“Other Democrats who benefited from Melgen generosity — the bulk of the contributions coming from [Doctor] Salomon Melgen and his wife Flor Melgen,” stated the news source, “include Hillary Clinton, who was given $8,600.”
Though the Melgen family clearly favors Democrats, it has been known to grease the palms of powerful Republicans as well.
“GOP Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL] and Mario Diaz-Balart [R-FL] received $9,800 and $10,000 from the family, respectively,” stated OpenSecrets.org in 2013.
“Former President George W. Bush also received a $1,000 donation,” added the news source.
