Former Sen. Bob Menendez reports to prison for 11-year sentence
The New Jersey Democrat, 71, was at the height of his power in 2023, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when federal prosecutors in New York revealed allegations based on a yearslong investigation that he'd sold his office for piles of cash and bars of gold.
Now, he's at Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania.
Following a two-month trial last summer, a jury found Menendez guilty on 16 counts, including bribery, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, obstruction of justice, extortion and conspiring to commit those crimes along with a pair of businesspeople.
The businesspeople — Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American, and Fred Daibes, a prominent real estate developer — already began their sentences of eight and seven years, respectively.
Menendez is one of only a few senators to have ever served time and the last since another New Jersey Democrat, Sen. Harrison Williams Jr., went to prison in the 1980s after being caught up in the FBI's Abscam sting operation.
Before he was sentenced in January, Menendez and his attorney asked for mercy — arguing he'd already been punished, having lost public office and being subjected to widespread mockery as 'Gold Bar Bob.'
'Other than family, I have lost everything I ever cared about,' a tearful Menendez told U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein. Present in the courtroom were his two adult children, including his son, Rep. Rob Menendez.
Stein did not spare him, though, and said Menendez had succumbed to greed and hubris, going from someone who had stood up to corruption in New Jersey politics early in his career to someone who now himself was corrupt.
'Somewhere along the way, I don't know where, you lost your way,' Stein said.
Menendez has in recent weeks taken to social media to decry the case against him, posts that many view as attempts to get a pardon from President Donald Trump. The federal investigation of Menendez appears to have begun in 2019, when Trump was president.
Menendez, Daibes and Hana are still appealing their convictions, with a team of experienced attorneys who have vowed to fight as long as it takes. There are issues in the case, including the scope of the Constitution's 'speech or debate' protections, that seem destined to intrigue appeals court judges and perhaps eventually the Supreme Court.
In particular, Menendez's appeal focuses on rulings Stein made during the trial. Menendez objected to some of the evidence that prosecutors were allowed to share with jurors. Then, after the trial, prosecutors admitted even some evidence the judge ruled should not be shown to jurors was provided to jurors on a laptop they had access to during their deliberations.
While it wasn't enough to keep him from starting his sentence, Menendez persuaded one judge in three-judge appeals court panel to last week back his request for bail pending appeal.
During a separate hearing, Daibes attorney Paul Clement, who served as solicitor general for President George W. Bush, also seemed to get appeals court judges' attention on the speech or debate issues in the case.
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New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Federal Authorities Target Homeless Camps in D.C.
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Robyn Swirling, who lives in Northwest D.C., said that she returned to her home in Manor Park one night this week and soon saw dozens of federal agents on the other side of the quiet residential street. They told her when she asked that they had a warrant, and she watched as they took a man from her neighbor's home into a police car. Early in the week, a group of F.B.I. agents stood in the bleachers of a high school athletic field in the Petworth neighborhood, looking on as adult recreation league soccer games were played. It did not appear that any crimes were taking place, and afterward, the soccer league emailed its members a link to an American Civil Liberties Union website about the public's rights when stopped by the F.B.I. 'Everyone was just uneasy about it,' said Elena Lensink, who was among those playing that evening. 'All that was happening at the field was, like, three soccer games.' 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Late Thursday night, F.B.I. agents retreated from an effort to take down a handful of tents housing homeless people at Washington Circle when a woman who lived in one, accompanied by members of a homeless advocacy group, showed them a notice the city had given her allowing her to stay a few more days. Federal officials have said they have made more than 150 arrests and seized 27 guns since the operation began, but have offered few details about the specific police work being done or the charges being brought. The White House and the office of Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., did not provide the names of those arrested but did highlight charges filed against a man who was accused of throwing a sandwich at a Border Patrol officer after condemning the presence of federal agents on the streets. Yet simply being present appears to be one of the goals. 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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Pope Leo XIV prays for peace as US-Russia summit over Ukraine war gets underway
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Friday for a peaceful end to the 'increasingly deafening violence' of wars around the world as he celebrated a Catholic feast day on the same day as a high-stakes U.S.-Russia summit over the war in Ukraine. History's first American pope didn't mention the meeting Friday in Alaska between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he has constantly called for dialogue and an end to the conflict, including in conversations with Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Friday Leo recalled that the Aug. 15 feast day dedicated to the Virgin Mary was declared a dogma by Pope Pius XII at the height of World War II. 'He (Pius) hoped that human lives would never again be destroyed by wars,' Leo said. 'How relevant are these words today? Unfortunately, even today, we feel powerless in the face of the spread of increasingly deafening violence, insensitive to any movement of humanity.' The pope prayed for hope for a peaceful future. 'We must not resign ourselves to the prevalence of the logic of armed conflict,' he said. Leo wasn't the only religious leader offering prayers for peace. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, prayed for a successful outcome of the U.S.-Russia summit during a visit to the Turkish island of Gokceada, home to an ethnic Greek community and his birthplace. 'Enlighten the leaders who will meet tomorrow in Alaska, that they may bring peace to the world, end these murderous wars, stop the shedding of blood, let reason prevail, and let justice and mutual respect reign throughout the world,' Bartholomew said Thursday. 'There is room here for everyone. We need not kill one another to make space.' The 85-year-old Bartholomew was visiting the island for the Aug. 15 celebration of the Virgin Mary, which is also an important date on the Orthodox Christian calendar. Leo spoke from the main piazza of Castel Gandolfo, the hilltown south of Rome that is home to a papal estate and gardens. He has spent a chunk of the summer at the estate, extending now for the second time his vacation to take advantage of the quiet and relatively cooler calm of the property overlooking Lake Alban. It was here that Leo met with Zelenskyy for the second time on July 9. Leo had spoken by telephone with Putin on June 4 and, according to the Vatican, 'urged Russia to make a gesture that would promote peace, emphasizing the importance of dialogue for establishing positive contacts between the parties and seeking solutions to the conflict.' Upon arrival in Castel Gandolfo earlier this week, Leo told reporters that he hoped the Trump-Putin summit would produce at least a cease-fire, saying the war had gone on for too long with too many dead, and no end in sight. Leo, who marks his 100th day as pope Saturday, will spend the long weekend here, breaking Sunday to have lunch with the poor people of the Albano diocese. He is scheduled to return to the Vatican on Tuesday, closing out a six-week vacation period punctuated by spells back at the Vatican, most significantly to preside over the 1-million strong Holy Year celebration for young people earlier this month. ___
an hour ago
Pope Leo XIV prays for peace as US-Russia summit over Ukraine war gets underway
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy -- CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Friday for a peaceful end to the 'increasingly deafening violence' of wars around the world as he celebrated a Catholic feast day on the same day as a high-stakes U.S.-Russia summit over the war in Ukraine. History's first American pope didn't mention the meeting Friday in Alaska between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he has constantly called for dialogue and an end to the conflict, including in conversations with Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Friday Leo recalled that the Aug. 15 feast day dedicated to the Virgin Mary was declared a dogma by Pope Pius XII at the height of World War II. 'He (Pius) hoped that human lives would never again be destroyed by wars,' Leo said. 'How relevant are these words today? Unfortunately, even today, we feel powerless in the face of the spread of increasingly deafening violence, insensitive to any movement of humanity.' The pope prayed for hope for a peaceful future. 'We must not resign ourselves to the prevalence of the logic of armed conflict,' he said. Leo wasn't the only religious leader offering prayers for peace. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, prayed for a successful outcome of the U.S.-Russia summit during a visit to the Turkish island of Gokceada, home to an ethnic Greek community and his birthplace. 'Enlighten the leaders who will meet tomorrow in Alaska, that they may bring peace to the world, end these murderous wars, stop the shedding of blood, let reason prevail, and let justice and mutual respect reign throughout the world,' Bartholomew said Thursday. 'There is room here for everyone. We need not kill one another to make space.' The 85-year-old Bartholomew was visiting the island for the Aug. 15 celebration of the Virgin Mary, which is also an important date on the Orthodox Christian calendar. Leo spoke from the main piazza of Castel Gandolfo, the hilltown south of Rome that is home to a papal estate and gardens. He has spent a chunk of the summer at the estate, extending now for the second time his vacation to take advantage of the quiet and relatively cooler calm of the property overlooking Lake Alban. It was here that Leo met with Zelenskyy for the second time on July 9. Leo had spoken by telephone with Putin on June 4 and, according to the Vatican, 'urged Russia to make a gesture that would promote peace, emphasizing the importance of dialogue for establishing positive contacts between the parties and seeking solutions to the conflict.' Upon arrival in Castel Gandolfo earlier this week, Leo told reporters that he hoped the Trump-Putin summit would produce at least a cease-fire, saying the war had gone on for too long with too many dead, and no end in sight. Leo, who marks his 100th day as pope Saturday, will spend the long weekend here, breaking Sunday to have lunch with the poor people of the Albano diocese. He is scheduled to return to the Vatican on Tuesday, closing out a six-week vacation period punctuated by spells back at the Vatican, most significantly to preside over the 1-million strong Holy Year celebration for young people earlier this month.
