NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez faces the likelihood of a long prison term when he is sentenced Wednesday for selling his once-considerable clout in Washington for gold bars, a luxury car and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash bribes.
Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to give the Democrat 15 years behind bars for crimes that include acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.
Menendez’s lawyers say he deserves less than two years in prison, citing his decades of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream.”
In the morning, Judge Sidney H. Stein signaled that a stiffer penalty was likely on the way.
He gave substantial prison terms to two New Jersey businessmen convicted of paying bribes to the senator. Fred Daibes, a real estate developer, got seven years and a $1.75 million fine. Wael Hana, an entrepreneur, got eight years a $1.25 million fine and was ordered to forfeit $125,000.
Prior to the announcement of his sentence, Daibes, 67, tearfully told Stein the jury verdict had left him “borderline suicidal,” and requested leniency so that he could care for his 30-year-old autistic son.
Hana told the judge, “I am an innocent man.”
“I never bribed Senator Menendez or asked his office for influence.”
The judge, though, said the jury’s verdict was “very, very substantial.”
Stein was scheduled to sentence Menendez in the afternoon. A third businessman pleaded guilty and testified against Menendez at a trial last year.
Menendez resigned from the Senate after his conviction last year.
The trial traced Menendez’s dealings with Egyptian officials and his quest to aid three men who showered him with lucrative gifts found during a 2022 raid on the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home he shared with his wife, Nadine.
FBI agents who searched the house found $480,000 in cash, some of it stuffed inside boots and the pockets of clothing hung in the couple’s closets. They also seized gold bars worth an estimated $150,000.
Prosecutors said Menendez had “put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” including by serving Egypt’s interests as he worked to protect a meat certification monopoly Hana had established with the Egyptian government.
Among other things, Menendez provided Egyptian officials with information about the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in military aid to Egypt.
Menendez has insisted that he is innocent of any crime, saying repeatedly that his interactions with Egyptian officials were normal for the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and that he always put American interests first. He denied taking any bribes and said the gold bars belonged to his wife.
