As a junior professor, I had caught MIS class students at UWM and later UTEP in violations of academic honesty policies published in class syllabi; the former dealt with plagiarism and the latter involved copying on individual assignments. Both universities had cumbersome student due process protections and despite compelling evidence (including an open class confession in the latter case before I had counseled the students in question: I reminded the students about my policy, and the coed in question asked, "Is it me?"), I faced bureaucratic roadblocks, including the corrupt UTEP Dean of Students (who never discussed the case with me but called me warning me against acting on a libelous lie, a retaliatory fabricated allegation the coed had made that I had threatened to blacklist her with prospective employers; what I eventually learned was she was citing me, a first-semester professor, as a reference without my knowledge or consent, and she was paranoid about what I might say).
What does this have to do with Menendez? Recidivism. In both cases, the emboldened students with chutzpah repeated their illicit behavior, and a lot of this had to do with dysfunctional university policy. In essence, I was risking my own academic career. I had other students who seemed to know other incidents were going on and were frustrated I wasn't catching them, but weren't willing to provide evidence, to fink on their colleagues.
Menendez, the senior Senator from NJ, in 2015 was indicted on corruption charges:
That investigation centered on the senator's relationship with a Florida eye doctor, Salomon Melgen and $660,000 in campaign contributions that helped Menendez get reelected in 2012.
Menendez was accused of accepting bribes in the form of campaign contributions and luxury travel in exchange for using his office to promote Melgen's business and personal interests with officials of President Barack Obama's administration.
The advocacy included trying to get visas so foreign girlfriends of Melgen, a married eye doctor from Florida, could visit him; challenging Medicare officials about a regulation tied to allegations Melgen overbilled the government by $9 million; and seeking to get the government to put pressure on the Dominican government about a contract to screen outbound cargo held by a company Melgen owned.
The case ended in a hung jury; the USG opted not to pursue a new trial. The Senate admonished him, a slap on the wrist. More troubling, Menendez easily won reelection in 2018 by 11 points in deep blue NJ.
So now, 5 years later, Menendez once again finds himself indicted, this time in an alternative context. Here is an extract from the indictment:
From at least 2018 up to and including in or bout 2022, MENENDEZ and his wife, NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, engaged in a corrupt relationship with three New Jersey associates and businessmen—WAEL HANA, aka “Will Hana,” JOSE URIBE, and FRED DAIBES, the defendants—in which MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ agreed to and did accept hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using Menendez's power and influence as a Senator to seek to protect and enrich HANA, URIBE, and DAIBES and to benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt. Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,
This corrupt relationship resulted in ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, promising to take and taking a series of official acts and breaches of official duty in exchange for bribes that benefitted him both directly, and indirectly through NADINE MENENDEZ, aka “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant. First, MENENDEZ promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty in ways that benefited the Government of Egypt and WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, an Egyptian-American businessman, among others. Among other actions, MENENDEZ provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt. MENENDEZ also improperly advised and pressured an official at the United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to HANA by Egypt and used in part to fund the bribes being paid to MENENDEZ through NADINE MENENDEZ. Second, MENENDEZ promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty to seek to disrupt a criminal investigation and prosecution undertaken by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office related to JOSE URIBE, the defendant, and his associates. Third, MENENDEZ promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty to recommend that the President nominate an individual as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who MENENDEZ believed could be influenced by MENENDEZ with respect to the federal criminal prosecution of FRED DAIBES, the defendant, and to seek to disrupt that same prosecution.
Menendez has responded that he has not been a rubberstamp for Egyptian interests in Congress, that he keeps loads of cash on hand for emergencies, and other disingenuous excuses. Oh, I loathe Menendez playing the victim card, arguing the real issue is prejudice against Latinos like him.
Ultimately, voters have to take responsibility for returning corrupt politicians like Menendez, Paxton and Trump to office and not rely on juries or impeachment trials to do their job for them.
