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US Senator Bob Menendez resigns after corruption charges

  • July 24, 2024
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[Síguenos ahora también en Whatsapp. Da clic aquí] US Senator Bob Menendez resigned Tuesday after being convicted on corruption chargesincluding bribery and acting as an agent of the Egyptian

US Senator Bob Menendez resigns after corruption charges

[Síguenos ahora también en Whatsapp. Da clic aquí]

US Senator Bob Menendez resigned Tuesday after being convicted on corruption chargesincluding bribery and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, succumbing to pressure from fellow Democrats to resign.

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy will name a replacement for Menendez, who has represented New Jersey in the Senate since 2006 and served Chairman of the influential Foreign Relations Committee before resigning from the post after being indicted last year.

Menendez, 70, was found guilty July 16 by a Manhattan federal jury of all 16 criminal charges brought against him, including obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent, wire fraud and extortionafter a nine-week trial. Two co-defendants were also convicted.

Menendez’s resignation statement was read aloud in the Senate chamber.

The case centered on what prosecutors called bribery schemes in which the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes. hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and car and mortgage payments for three businessmen.

Photo: Reuters archive

In exchange for bribes Menendez helped direct billions of dollars in American aid to Egypt. where prosecutors say one of the businessmen, Wael Hana, had ties to government officials. Menendez was also accused of trying to influence criminal investigations into two other businessmen, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe.

Hana and Daibes were co-defendants in the senator’s case and were also were found guilty on each of the charges brought against them. Uribe pleaded guilty and testified as a prosecution witness against Menendez.

Menendez collided previously faced corruption charges, But that case ended in a mistrial in 2017 in New Jersey on narrower charges.

During the trial they were handed over to the jury. some gold bars that federal agents seized from a New Jersey home. which the senator shared with his wife. Agents also found more than $480,000 in cash, some of it stuffed into envelopes inside a jacket with the senator’s name on it.

Photo: Reuters archive

Defense lawyers argued he was trying to shift blame to his wife, whom prosecutors said was an intermediary in accepting bribes. They indicated that gold bars were found in her closet; They claimed they led completely different lives and that she did not allow her husband access to her finances.

The defense also said that for decades, the senator He withdrew cash from banks and kept it at home. His older sister testified that he picked up the habit from his parents, who fled Cuba with money his father kept under guard.

Nadine Menendez will later be tried separately.She did not attend her husband’s trial after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The jury deliberated more than 12 hours within three days before the verdict is rendered.

(according to information from Reuters)

Source: Aristegui Noticias

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