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Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey received some bad news Tuesday morning, as the jury in a federal courthouse in New York City announced their verdict: GUILTY.
From CBS News: Sen. Bob Menendez, a powerful New Jersey Democrat, was convicted Tuesday in a sprawling bribery scheme in which he was accused of selling out his office for lucrative bribes, including cash and gold bars.
A federal jury convicted Menendez on all 16 felony counts after prosecutors portrayed him as the puppet-master of a complex bribery scheme that involved two foreign governments and three New Jersey businessmen.
The verdict marks a remarkable downfall for the longtime senator who sat atop the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and beat separate bribery charges in 2017.
Prosecutors explained that the bribery scheme started in 2018, around the time Menendez, 70, began dating his now wife, Nadine Menendez, who he tried to blame for the scheme.
CBS further wrote:
Prosecutors alleged Menendez acted to secretly benefit the government of Egypt, including ghostwriting a letter for the country lobbying his Senate colleagues to release military aid; pressured a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to protect a halal certification monopoly Egypt granted to a businessman, Wael Hana, who was paying the senator’s wife; attempted to quash a federal prosecution against a second businessman, Fred Daibes, while helping him land a lucrative investment deal with Qatar; and interfering in criminal investigations by the New Jersey attorney general’s office into the associates of a third businessman, Jose Uribe.
The Associated Press announced: Menendez’s wife, Nadine, also was charged, although her trial has been postponed while she recovers from breast cancer surgery.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Bob Menendez convicted of taking bribes paid in gold and a luxury car. Verdict still being read at corruption trial.
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 16, 2024
🚨BREAKING: New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez found guilty all counts in bribery trial pic.twitter.com/Ck5ZkUOV00
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 16, 2024
NEW: There is a verdict in the Senator Bob Menendez bribery trial.
Here’s what the verdict sheet jurors will have needed to fill out looks like pic.twitter.com/9qqrxgHtYx
— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) July 16, 2024
A federal jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, the powerful New Jersey Democrat accused of selling out his office for lucrative bribes, including cash and gold bars. https://t.co/aGxUyygnGj
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 16, 2024
