The Democrat was cleared previously of charges he took bribes to help a donor get visas for his lovers.
Sen. Robert Menendez is no stranger to corruption investigations and indictments — and to eye-popping revelations about his private life.
The New Jersey Democrat is facing charges of taking gold bars and bribes and stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash around his house in return for using his “power and influence” — including his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to benefit the Egyptian government and two local businessmen.
He has denied the charges and called them a conspiracy by over-reaching prosecutors — a tactic which worked for him the last time he was charged with a lurid corruption scheme involving a bizarre cast of characters.
Menendez’s previous case saw him accused of taking lavish hospitality from a Medicare fraudster doctor who asked the senator to help get visas for his bevy of young mistresses; to intervene in an audit which would have stopped him ripping off taxpayers; and to stop Customs and Border Patrol disrupting his side-hustle screening cargo at the Dominican Republic’s ports.
So far, the new case against Menendez does not feature foreign villas, a Brazilian reality star who posed for “Sexy” magazine or a rock-star style “rider” for the politician, that he had to have Evian water when flying on the doctor’s private jets.
Menendez was charged in 2015 alongside Salomon Melgen, a married Palm Beach eye doctor who had allegedly given the senator access to a lavish lifestyle in return for doing favors.
They first met in 2006, when Menendez entered the senate, and Melgen became a mega-donor, putting $751,000 into his 2012 re-election campaign alone.
But, said prosecutors, Melgen got Menendez to use the power of his office on his behalf — particularly to get visas for six foreign girlfriends Melgen wanted to bring to the US.
The senator was accused of deploying his staff to secure a visa for Juliana Lopes Leite, a Brazilian actress who posed nude on the cover of “Sexy” magazine, telling an aide to email a senior State Department official to give her application “special consideration.”
He was also accused of stepping in to help Ukrainian student Svitlana Buchyk who wanted a plastic-surgery consultation. And, the feds alleged, he directed a staff member to “call Ambassador asap” to reverse a visa denial to a 22-year-old Dominican model.
“Menendez used his Senate staff to accommodate Melgen’s requests for official action, including collecting information from Melgen and his agents about Melgen’s needs and interests, arranging for Melgen to meet with a United States Senator and advocating on Melgen’s behalf to Executive Branch officials,” reads the 2015 indictment against Menendez.
