US Senator Menendez charged with bribery, steps down from Senate committee role
US Senator Menendez charged with bribery, steps down from Senate committee role
He accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and gold bars, the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said.
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged powerful Senator Bob Menendez and his wife with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, which could complicate Democrats' efforts to keep their slim majority in the U.S. Senate in next year's elections.
Menendez later stepped down temporarily from his role as chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee until the case is resolved, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, adding that Menendez had a right to due process.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said Menendez, 69, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and gold bars in exchange for using his power and influence as New Jersey's senior senator to benefit the government of Egypt and interfere with law enforcement probes into the businessmen.
Menendez has been an important ally to fellow Democrat Joe Biden as the president has sought to reassert U.S. influence on the world stage, rally support for congressional aid to Ukraine, and push back against a rising China.
It's really nice to see some of these fuckers caught and investigated for a change.
The ever-growing pessimist in me wonders what he did to trigger this though. I want to believe this is good people in government doing their job and rooting out corruption. But I'm pretty sure most people in the Senate are doing this shit.
God damn, I still can't fucking believe Boebert and her husband's million dollar "cunsulting fees" (aka bribery payments) weren't quickly investigated and they're already in jail. It's the exact same shit.
This was the senator that was blocking Turkey from getting the new and upgraded F-16 btw. I wonder if this will change anything.