US Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
To unfamiliar readers, one of my longest blog traditions is the annual mock award of Dems behaving badly (To ensure a balanced approach, I later introduced the Bad Elephant of the Year.) I was sorely tempted this year to reference Musk's expose of the Twitter files showing collusion between Dem operatives and prior Twitter management on suppression of certain tweets and stories (e.g., the infamous Hunter Biden laptop); granted, the role of prominent Democrats like Michelle Obama lobbying Twitter to ban a sitting President is disturbing and morally unacceptable. However, Twitter also responded to GOP requests to censor tweets, the NY Post story on the Biden laptop, if anything, got more exposure as a result of Twitter action, and Trump did have reach beyond Twitter.
Menendez is a prior contender for this award.
Menendez, 68, was indicted in 2015 after prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Unit accused him of accepting lavish bribes from Palm Beach ophthalmologist Dr. Salomon Melgen.Investigators alleged that Menendez received hefty political donations and enjoyed free private jets and luxury vacations in exchange for helping Melgen secure lucrative government contracts, as well as visas for the doc’s three foreign girlfriends.
The 2017 trial ended in a jury deadlock and mistrial and prosecutors dropped the case the next year.
The current investigation apparently looks at allegations of a businessman seeking the senior senator's help in securing Egyptian certification of its meat exports via the senator's wife, Nadine Arslanian:
The current probe dates back to at least 2019, according to the Journal, when federal investigators executed search warrants against New Jersey businessman Wael Hana, who runs the only company allowed to certify meat exports to Egypt as halal and is an associate of Arslanian.
Court documents reportedly indicate that prosecutors are looking into possible undisclosed foreign lobbying. Hana’s lawyer told the Journal that his client obtained his halal certification contract with Egypt “without any assistance whatsoever from any US public official.”
While allegations don't constitute findings of wrongdoing and Menendez deserves his day in court, this pattern of behavior suggests political corruption, and one would think after the first investigation Menendez would exercise due diligence to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
