Former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was given an 11-year jail sentence on Wednesday for receiving cash and gold bribes and serving as an Egyptian agent, crimes for which he was known as “Gold Bar Bob,” according to his own attorney.
After Menendez sobbed as he told the judge that he had lost all he valued, save for his family, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein in Manhattan pronounced the sentence.
The judge remarked, “You were successful, powerful, and at the top of our political system.” You lost your way sometime along the line, and I’m not sure when it happened, and working for the public good turned into working for your own.
The judge said that Menendez’s activities contribute to voters’ cynicism.
What is the outcome? He mentioned a five-year crime that had been the subject of a protracted inquiry. You were removed from the Senate. You lost both your reputation and your chairmanship.
The Democrat was found guilty of several offenses, including serving as an agent for Egypt and selling his once-considerable influence in Washington for payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Prosecutors had asked for a 15-year prison sentence.
Menendez, who was given the opportunity to speak before being sentenced, sobbed multiple times when outlining his achievements.
Menendez stood in front of Stein, his hands in his pockets except for the times he used a tissue to wipe his face, and he said, “You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence.”
I am by no means a flawless man, your honor. He went on to say, “I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions.” More good than harm has come from me. Your honor, I beg you to evaluate me in that light.
Stein was instructed by attorney Adam Fee to award Menendez credit for a career of exceptional public service and selflessness.
According to Fee, despite his decades of devotion, he is now more well known as “gold bar Bob.”
Before the sentencing, Menendez’s attorneys had argued that their client should receive a sentence of less than two years in prison, pointing to his decades of public service and generally happy life after the son of Cuban immigrants became the embodiment of the American Dream after rising from poverty.
However, Fee added that after listening to Stein earlier in the day sentence two New Jersey businessmen found guilty of paying bribes to the senator to lengthy jail sentences, the defense team chose to request that Menendez receive no more than eight years. Real estate developer Fred Daibes received a $1.75 million punishment and seven years in prison. Entrepreneur Wael Hana was sentenced to eight years in prison, fined $1.25 million, and forced to pay $125,000.
Before his sentence was announced, Daibes, 67, sobbed as he told Stein that the jury judgment had left him feeling suicidal and asked for leniency so that he could take care of his autistic 30-year-old son.
I am an innocent man, Hana informed the judge.
I never sought influence from Senator Menendez’s office or paid him a bribe.
However, the court stated that the jury’s decision was extremely significant.
During a trial last year, a third businessman testified against Menendez and entered a guilty plea.
Despite losing most of his influence in the fall of 2023 when the charges against him were made public and he was compelled to relinquish his influential position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez resigned from the Senate following his conviction last year.
The trial followed Menendez’s interactions with Egyptian authorities and his attempts to assist three individuals who lavished him with expensive presents that were discovered during a raid on his wife, Nadine, and house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 2022.
When FBI officers investigated the house, they discovered $480,000, some of which was hidden in boots and clothes pockets hanging in the couple’s wardrobes. Additionally, they confiscated gold bars estimated to be worth $150,000.
As he sought to safeguard a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian government, prosecutors claimed Menendez had offered his high rank for sale in exchange for this trove of bribes.
Menendez, among other things, ghostwrote a letter to other senators urging them to ease a hold on $300 million in military aid to Egypt and gave Egyptian officials details about the personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
Menendez allegedly tried to convince a federal prosecutor in New Jersey to be kind toward Daibes, a politically powerful real estate developer who was charged with bank fraud, for additional bribes, according to the prosecution.
Another businessman, Jose Uribe, said during the trial that he assisted Nadine Menendez in obtaining a Mercedes-Benz convertible after the senator attempted to persuade state prosecutors to abandon criminal investigations against his associates.
Menendez has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming that he always prioritized American interests and that his contacts with Egyptian officials were typical for the head of the Foreign Relations Committee. He claimed that his wife owned the gold bars and denied accepting any bribes.
After battling breast cancer for the past year, Nadine Menendez will go on trial in March on many of the same allegations as her husband.
In a presentence submission, Menendez’s attorneys claimed that he had already endured a tremendous deal of suffering.
Senator Menendez’s conviction has, predictably, made him a national joke and denied him all possible financial, professional, and personal advantages, according to a letter from his attorneys. Bob’s long-established reputation is in ruins at the age of 71. His career and finances have been destroyed.
In court documents, the attorneys explained how Menendez dedicated a significant portion of his life to his community and his nation after being traumatized by the early death of his father, who committed suicide when Menendez was 23 years old due to his inability to settle debts from gambling.
of heroic terms, they recounted Menendez’s 50-year career of public service, including his time as mayor of Union City, New Jersey, a state congressman, a member of the U.S. House, and, from 2006 to 2024, a senator.
But he also held the unique distinction of being the only senator from the United States to be indicted twice.
He was accused in 2015 of selling his influence to a wealthy Florida businessman and eye doctor who pampered him with extravagant trips and political donations, according to the prosecution. However, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision in that case. Instead of retrying him, federal prosecutors dropped the case.
By Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
