Menendez’s latest corruption scandal is an indictment of Senate Democrats
Zachary Faria
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Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has once again been indicted on corruption-related charges, raising the question of just how much duplicity Democrats are willing to ignore among powerful members of their own party.
Menendez, whose 2015 indictment ended in a 2017 mistrial, is now being indicted on bribery charges involving Egyptian officials. According to the indictment, the bribes “included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value.” Investigators found $480,000 in cash in envelopes hidden in clothing in Menendez’s home during a June 2022 search and found $70,000 in his wife’s safe deposit box, as well as $100,000 in gold bars.
ROBERT MENENDEZ INDICTED: DEMOCRATIC NEW JERSEY SENATOR FACES FEDERAL CHARGES OF BRIBERY
In exchange for those, prosecutors allege that Menendez used his “power and influence as a Senator to protect and enrich” three “New Jersey associates and businessmen” and to “benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt.”
Through all of this, and through his previous corruption indictment, Menendez was unchallenged and entirely accepted back into the Democratic Senate establishment. He was quickly restored to his post as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after his mistrial by then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). His 2018 reelection campaign was backed by fellow New Jersey Democrats Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Cory Booker.
When Democrats assumed the Senate majority in 2021, Menendez was allowed to become the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, where he has remained up to now. The allegations in the current indictment put the time frame for Menendez’s latest misconduct between 2018, after the initial charges against him were dropped, and 2022.
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And yet Menendez was dutifully backed by Democrats in the 2018 Senate election cycle, when Democrats were nervous about losses with a rough Senate map. The 2024 Senate map is much worse for Democrats. Given that, along with Schumer’s continued empowerment of Menendez in the Senate, it isn’t hard to see Democrats dutifully backing him again in order to keep a hold on power in the chamber.
Menendez should have been dumped by the party in 2018, and he certainly should not have been given back his top post on the Foreign Relations Committee, especially given that he allegedly returned to exploiting it almost immediately after regaining it. He should be dumped by Senate Democrats once again, but given how Schumer bends over backward to accommodate members of his caucus no matter how clearly unfit they are for the job, don’t be surprised to see all hands on deck to reelect Menendez even under a more damning indictment.