Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is set to turn himself in to federal prison on Tuesday for an 11-year sentence after he was found guilty on bribery and corruption charges.
Last year, Menendez was found guilty on all 16 counts, including extortion, obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, bribery, and conspiracy. He had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes from three once-prominent New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Fred Daibes, and Jose Uribe.
He was the first sitting member of Congress to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent. Menendez had been chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menendez, 71, will report to federal prison in Pennsylvania to begin serving his sentence.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, was also found guilty in her federal bribery trial. Her sentencing date is in June. She was indicted alongside her husband in September 2023 on bribery charges, but her trial was delayed due to her breast cancer treatment. Prosecutors said that Nadine Menendez had introduced her husband to Egyptian intelligence and military officials and that those introductions established the corrupt agreement between his Senate office and Egyptian leaders.
Hana and Daibes reported to prison last month. Uribe pleaded guilty, testifying that he bribed Menendez by giving his wife a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible on the condition that Menendez would “stop and kill” any criminal investigation looking into his company.
Menendez has been attempting to plead with the Trump White House for a pardon. Earlier this year, Menendez appealed to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), his friend from the Senate and a Trump ally, to request a pardon or sentence commutation, according to NBC News.
The former senator has also compared his conviction to that of President Donald Trump’s, in which Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts related to his falsification of business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
BOB MENENDEZ ASKS FOR TRUMP’S HELP IN EFFORT TO DELAY WIFE’S CORRUPTION TRIAL
Menendez has also made his case to Trump on social media, saying he understands “why President Trump believes the Justice Department was Weaponized against him and his supporters,” and claiming that the Justice Department under former President Barack Obama was “used against me, not only over Iran, but also about Cuba policy.”
“Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the Wild West of political prosecutions,” Menendez said in another post shortly after his sentencing. “President Trump is right. This process is political and has been corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system.”