If you’re looking for a briefing on the circumstances surrounding New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, you could do worse than David Dayen’s piece at The American Prospect. Here’s a snippet:
Democrats allowed Menendez to climb back to his ranking membership despite the fact that the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee found that he “violated Senate Rules, federal law, and applicable standards of conduct†in the Melgen case by failing to disclose the gifts. If the indictment is correct, Menendez went right back to using that perch to favor-trade with his new girlfriend’s wealthy associates.
The indictment says that Menendez explicitly secured military support for and weapons sales to Egypt, which he was in a position to influence as Foreign Relations Committee ranking member and then chair. “I am going to sign off on this sale to Egypt today,†Menendez texts his wife at one point. Incredibly, the indictment supplies evidence of Menendez ghostwriting a letter on behalf of the Egyptian government to persuade his Senate colleagues to lift a hold on $300 million in foreign aid. Nadine Menendez is placed at the meetings with Egyptian officials, including some in Menendez’s Senate office, where these activities were being plotted.
Menendez also made calls to the Trump administration to pressure them into facilitating talks aimed at getting a dam built over the Nile River, a priority of the Egyptian government. He sent what was described as “highly sensitive†nonpublic information about American embassy personnel in Cairo to Nadine, who then passed it directly to an Egyptian government official. And he pressured the Department of Agriculture to lift its opposition to Hana’s halal certification monopoly, which the Justice Department says is where Hana acquired the funds to finance the bribes.
I see any number of problems with the New Jersey Democratic Party’s strategy of primarying him. For one thing what if he wins? For another when you’re trying to disqualify a former president not disqualifying a pretty obviously guilty senator is really a bridge too far.
