Former N.J. Sen. Bob Menendez should get 15 years in prison, prosecutors say. Here's why.
NEW YORK - Prosecutors are seeking a lengthy prison term for former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez.
Back in July, Menendez was convicted on 16 corruption charges. Evidence in the case included gold bars and $480,000 in cash found in his residence in a 2022 FBI raid. Prosecutors alleged it was the result of bribes paid by three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator to use his power to protect their interests and make them money.
In papers filed late Thursday in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors called for the lengthy prison term for the 71-year-old Menendez when he is sentenced on Jan. 29.
When he was charged in fall 2023, Menendez was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was forced out of that position in 2023 and gave up his Senate seat in August.
Two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were also convicted along with Menendez while a third pleaded guilty and testified at the July trial. Prosecutors called for Hana to receive at least 10 years in prison and Daibes to spend at least nine years behind bars. Prosecutors said the crimes occurred from 2018 to 2022.
In their submission, prosecutors called the case a "historical rarity" because Menendez abused his powerful post on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and because he acted as an agent of Egypt.
"The defendants' crimes amount to an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch, to corrupt the nation's core sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement," prosecutors wrote.
"He corruptly promised to influence foreign relations, including attempting to pressure a federal agency engaged in diplomatic attempts to protect U.S. businesses from an extractive monopoly granted by a foreign nation to one of his coconspirators. And he corruptly promised to subvert the rule of law by disrupting multiple felony criminal proceedings, state and federal, including by influencing the selection of the chief federal law enforcement officer for New Jersey," they added.
They are seeking a stiff sentence "that reflect the seriousness of the defendants' crimes, the immeasurable harm they have caused to the public trust, and the need to deter others from engaging in such egregious abuses of power."
In presentence arguments last week, defense lawyers called for Judge Sidney H. Stein to be lenient with Menendez, saying his conviction had "rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit."
"Bob is deserving of mercy because of the penalties already imposed, his age, and the lack of a compelling need to impose a custodial sentence," the lawyers said.
With Menendez's help, Hana was granted the sole right to certify that meat exported to Egypt from the United States conformed to Islamic dietary requirements.
The monopoly that Hana's company received forced out several other companies that had been certifying beef and liver exported to Egypt and occurred over a span of several days in May 2019, according to trial testimony.
