Bob Menendez under criminal investigation in New York: Report

 

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is reportedly under a new federal criminal investigation after surviving a mistrial and case dismissal in 2017 related to an alleged bribery scheme.

The senior senator from New Jersey and Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is under federal investigation, according to “two people familiar with the inquiry” cited by Semafor, which reported Wednesday that “prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have contacted people connected to Menendez in recent weeks” and that investigators “have sent at least one subpoena in the case.”

The outlet said the “broad outlines of the new inquiry are similar to the 2017 case,” according to its sources, but “the new investigation involves an entirely different group of people.”

Menendez's communications director, Francisco Pelayo, told the Washington Examiner to reach out to Michael Soliman at Mercury Public Affairs.

"Senator Menendez is aware of an investigation that was reported on today, however he does not know the scope of the investigation,” Soliman told NBC News New York. “As always, should any official inquiries be made, the Senator is available to provide any assistance that is requested of him or his office.”

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The Justice Department announced in April 2015 that it had indicted Mendez and Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen in New Jersey in connection with a bribery scheme. Menendez was accused of accepting gifts from Melgen in exchange for favors.

“According to allegations in the indictment, between January 2006 and January 2013, Menendez accepted close to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to Melgen and to support the visa applications of several of Melgen’s girlfriends,” the Justice Department said at the time.

Menendez pleaded not guilty and said he and Melgen were just longtime friends.

Following an 11-week trial, the federal judge overseeing the Menendez case declared a mistrial in November 2017 after the jury said it was deadlocked on the charges.

The Justice Department said in January 2018 that it would seek a new trial. But a few days later, Walls acquitted Menendez on seven of the numerous counts that had been brought against him. The Justice Department cited that ruling when they decided to give up their efforts to retry the senator and dismissed the indictment in late January 2018.

A bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee report blasted Menendez in April 2018.

“The Committee has found that over a six-year period you knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from Dr. Melgen without obtaining required Committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law,” the committee said. “Additionally, while accepting these gifts, you used your position as a Member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgen's personal and business interests.”

The Senate Ethics Committee added that “this conduct violated Senate Rules, federal law, and applicable standards of conduct.”

Melgen was separately convicted in April 2017 on 67 counts “related to his participation in a health care fraud scheme involving the filing of false claims and the inclusion of false entries into patients’ medical charts,” according to the Justice Department. A jury sentenced him to 17 years in prison in February 2018.

One of the final acts taken by former President Donald Trump was commuting Melgen’s sentence just hours before President Joe Biden was inaugurated.

Bob Menendez under criminal investigation in New York: Report | Washington Examiner