Former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in a multi-year corruption scheme in which he used his political clout to do favors for the Egyptian government in exchange for lavish gifts.
Menendez, a former three-term senator who chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, appeared before a federal judge in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, flanked by lawyers and at times crying, to receive his punishment for becoming the first senator to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent.
Menendez, 71, accepted bribes in the form of lavish gifts from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted his assistance in interfering with state and federal criminal investigations and securing lucrative deals with officials from Egypt and Qatar.
“You were successful, powerful, and at the pinnacle of our political system. District Judge Sidney Stein told Menendez, “Somewhere along the way, and I am not sure when, you lost your way, and working for the public good became working for your own good.”
Before being sentenced, the former US senator pleaded with the judge to take into account his extensive public service.
“Your Honor, I am not a perfect man. I have made more than my fair share of mistakes and bad decisions. I have done a lot more good than bad. “I ask you, your honor, to judge me in that context,” Menendez said through tears.
He described various times when he helped others, such as assisting a family in obtaining a new kidney for a family member.
Menendez cried as he described how he was so committed to public service that he missed several events in the lives of his two children. He struggled to describe the agony of missing events in his grandchildren’s lives if he was sentenced to a long term.
While Judge Stein agreed that Menendez had done a lot of good in his life, he also reminded the former senator that his bad actions would not go unpunished.
“The public cannot be led to believe that you can get away with bribery,” a judge said.
A jury found Menendez guilty on 16 counts, including bribery, extortion, corruption, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, approximately six months ago – what prosecutors described as “the most serious” conduct that a senator has been convicted of “in the history of the republic.”
When federal agents searched Menendez’s home in 2022 and 2023, they made an unexpected discovery.
More than $100,000 worth of gold bars, one discovered in a Ziploc bag stuffed in a closet, a Mercedes-Benz convertible parked in the driveway, and more than $480,000 in cash stuffed into coat jacket pockets, shoes, and bags.
In addition to jewelry and other gifts, Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez accepted bribes from two co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, as well as Jose Uribe, a former co-defendant who took a plea deal.
Federal prosecutors have asked Judge Stein to sentence Menendez to 15 years in prison, a $2.8 million fine, and more than $920,000 in restitution.
The former senator’s attorneys asked the judge for leniency, requesting that he consider home detention and “rigorous community service” instead.
Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman with a halal-meat certification company, introduced Menendez to Egyptian intelligence officials. With Menendez’s assistance, Hana secured a lucrative contract with US officials to be Egypt’s sole certifier of halal meat.
Menendez lobbied the United States to provide Egypt with millions of dollars in military aid and sent Egyptian officials confidential information.
Hana was sentenced to approximately eight years in prison.
Daibes, a real estate developer, offered Menendez gold and cash in exchange for his assistance in interfering with a criminal investigation and securing investors for a development project. Daibes connected Menendez with a Qatari investor who was also a member of the Qatari royal family.
Menendez later backed a Senate resolution praising Qatar.
Daibes was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday.
Uribe, an insurance executive, pleaded guilty, telling prosecutors that he gave Menendez and his wife a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for Menendez interfering with a state fraud investigation. Menendez then spoke with the New Jersey attorney general about the case.
Uribe will be sentenced in April.
According to Menendez’s lawyers, the senator’s wife allegedly played a key role in the scheme, with Nadine being blamed for pressuring Menendez into accepting the lavish gifts.
Nadine is expected to stand trial in March. Her trial was separated from her husband’s last year when she revealed she has breast cancer.
Menendez maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal his conviction from the time he was indicted until his sentencing.
Despite calls to resign from fellow Democratic members of Congress, Menendez refused to relinquish power. He briefly considered running for re-election in the state, this time as an independent candidate. However, following his conviction, Menendez resigned.
“I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country,” Menendez said following the verdict. “The decision rendered by the jury today would put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.”
