Co-defendant pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate in bribery case against top Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez



Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey was dealt a severe legal blow on Friday when his former co-defendant in a bribery case pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the top Democrat.

Jose Uribe, a New Jersey businessman, admitted to seven charges in a Manhattan federal court, including honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, and conspiracy to commit bribery on Friday.

Uribe admitted in court to providing a Mercedez-Benz to Nadine Menendez, the senator's wife, in exchange for his “using his power and influence as a United States senator to get a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations related to one of my associates.”

He faces 95 years in prison for his crimes, and he has agreed to forfeit $246,000 related to those criminal acts.

Authorities have accused Menendez and his wife of accepting bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, and the luxury car in exchange for the senator's influence. Two other businessmen have been charged and have pleaded not guilty.

In January, Menendez was nailed with superseding charges related to his alleged acceptance of luxury watches in return for his influence to help a New Jersey developer obtain a multimillion-dollar deal with the Qatari government. The previous charges are related to accusations of bribery that benefited the government of Egypt.

Menendez has denied all charges against him.

He has also resisted calls from his own party to resign from his office, including the vociferous criticism from Democrat Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

"We have a colleague in the Senate that's actually done much more sinister kinds of things. He needs to go," said Fetterman, who was comparing him to a Republican expelled from Congress. "Menendez is really a senator for Egypt, not New Jersey."

Menendez was previously indicted in a bribery case in 2015 where he was accused of trading political favors for luxury flights, vacations, and other benefits. A judge declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict, and prosecutors later dropped the charges.

The 70-year-old Democrat was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and has served as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The trial against the Democrat and two remaining co-defendants is scheduled for May.

Here's more about the stunning development:

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Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez nailed with second set of allegations related to supposed bribery with Qatari company



Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey was nailed with a second set of bribery allegations related to money he allegedly accepted from an investment fund in Qatar.

He is accused of making positive statements about the Muslim nation in order to help a developer in New Jersey obtain a multi-million-dollar investment from a company tied to Qatar. The developer was identified as Fred Daibes, and he was also indicted in the new allegations.

“Menendez provided Daibes with these statements so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari Investor and a Qatari government official associated with the Qatari Investment Company,” read the superseding indictment.

Daibes is alleged to have purchased luxury watches worth between $10,000 and $24,000 and given them to Menendez in exchange for the positive comments about Qatar. Among the evidence is a message Daibes sent to the senator with photos of the watches asking, "How about one of these."

The new allegations also suggest that the Qataris offered tickets to the Formula One Grand Prix in Florida to the wife of the senator and that he continued to receive other "things of value" after Daibes obtained the joint venture.

Menendez was previously indicted on bribery charges related to alleged payments he received, including “cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value.”

He has pleaded not guilty to both sets of allegations.

His attorney, Adam Fee, responded to the new allegations by saying that they "stink of desperation."

Menendez has vehemently denied the charges and refused to step down from his office. While he has been lambasted by Republican politicians and pundits on the right, some on the left, like Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), have also ripped into the senator.

"We have a colleague in the Senate that's actually done much more sinister kinds of things. He needs to go," said Fetterman after a Republican was expelled from Congress. "Menendez is really a senator for Egypt, not New Jersey."

Daibes has also pleaded not guilty to the allegations.

Here's a news report about the new allegations:

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The DOJ indicts Menendez for corruption AGAIN



Justice might finally be catching up with New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.

It all began when federal prosecutors raided Bob Menendez’s home last summer and discovered quite the impressive stash.

One of the most influential Democrats in the nation had stuffed nearly $500,000 in cash into jacket pockets, closets, and a safe. The stash included 13 gold bars, two of which were 1kg in weight.

Menendez and his wife were also gifted a brand-new Mercedes-Benz. Now the two are being charged with accepting bribes in return for political favors.

This is the second time in ten years Menendez is facing an indictment, and Levin believes the lengths to which law enforcement is going to expose his corruption are “amazing.”

“I’m sure Menendez says 'why can’t I get Hunter Biden treatment here?'” Levin jokes.

“They weren’t throwing search warrants at Hunter Biden for anything, and they don’t even open an investigation about Joe Biden, who’s selling out to communist China and other enemy states and corporations,” Levin says.

“It’s far more serious than whatever this moronic senator did from New Jersey.”

Not one search warrant has been issued to look into the Biden family, while the government jumped at the chance to search Menendez’s home for his cash and gold.

“If anything, the Menendez case shows us how corrupt Biden is and how corrupt the Department of Justice is, that they don’t even have a special counsel investigating the guy,” Levin says.


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