Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday, after he was found guilty on all counts in his federal corruption trial last year. Justice Department prosecutors had asked for 15 years, while lawyers for the 71-year-old urged the court to consider a sentence that “relies heavily on alternatives to incarceration.”
Menendez, who resigned following the trial after decades in Democratic politics, has vowed to appeal. Ahead of the sentencing, his lawyers argued to U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein that he should remain free pending that appeal, citing a list of issues they plan on pressing to overturn his conviction. His case could end up at the Supreme Court, which has sided with political corruption defendants in a string of cases in recent years.
An unrelated federal bribery trial against Menendez in 2017 ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
NBC News previously reported that Menendez wants a pardon from President Donald Trump after failing to get one from former President Joe Biden.
Menendez was tried alongside two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, who were found guilty as well. Earlier Wednesday, Stein sentenced Hana to eight years and Daibes to seven years.
Menendez was found guilty of all 16 counts, including bribery and acting as a foreign agent. Prosecutors alleged the former senator took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his political influence to enrich businessmen and benefit Egypt and Qatar. They said the bribes included cash and gold, among other things.
“The Court should impose substantial sentences of imprisonment — sentences of imprisonment of at least fifteen years for Menendez, at least ten years for Hana, and at least nine years for Daibes — and significant financial penalties to provide just punishment for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust, and to deter others from ever engaging in similar conduct,” prosecutors wrote to Stein ahead of sentencing.
They called the case the first in which a senator was convicted of a crime involving the abuse of a leadership position on a Senate committee, as well as the first in which a senator (or anyone) was convicted of serving as a foreign agent while being a public official. In Menendez’s own submission ahead of sentencing, his lawyers agreed he isn’t a typical defendant, but for different reasons. “His public office and the accompanying attention it draws distinguish him,” they wrote to Stein. “Unsurprisingly, Senator Menendez’s conviction has rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit,” they wrote. “While all defendants suffer inevitable personal and professional consequences if convicted of serious federal crimes, Senator Menendez in many important respects has already been punished relatively more harshly due to his position,” they wrote. He has sought to lay blame on his wife, Nadine Menendez, who was diagnosed with cancer and faces a separate trial. “Other than the government’s arguments, there is almost no evidence to support an inference that Senator Menendez was aware of the cash and gold Nadine stored in her personal and secure closet and safe deposit box,” they wrote in their sentencing memo, adding: “Indeed, in other respects, the evidence showed that Nadine was clearly engaged in conduct without Senator Menendez’s knowledge.” Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in Donald Trump’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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