Ex-Senator Bob Menendez Pleads for Mercy in Gold Bar Case

(Bloomberg) -- A judge who will decide the punishment for Bob Menendez must weigh the former senator’s half century of public service against calls by prosecutors to imprison him for 15 years after he was convicted of systematically exploiting his power for personal profit.

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US District Judge Sidney Stein will sentence the New Jersey Democrat on Wednesday for bribery, extortion and acting as an agent of Egypt while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The two businessmen found guilty of giving Menendez gold bars, cash and a convertible received sentences of seven and eight years in prison at the hearing Wednesday.

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Prosecutors said in a court filing that Menendez’s corruption was “perhaps more serious” than that of any US senator ever. Lawyers for Menendez, 71, suggested a term of about two years, or even home detention and community service. They said prosecutors seek a “vindictive and cruel” punishment that would amount to a death sentence for a man his age.

“Senator Menendez has suffered extreme public shame and upheaval, and his finances and reputation are destroyed,” his lawyers wrote. “He is the butt of late-night talk show jokes, and his name will live in infamy as the first politician in history to be convicted of being a foreign agent.”

The sentence will complete the downfall of a gifted politician who rose from a family of Cuban immigrants to become the most powerful Hispanic lawmaker in Congress. Menendez, who overcame unrelated corruption charges when a 2017 case ended in a mistrial, was forced to resign after New York jurors convicted him in July.

Before turning to Menendez, Stein sentenced the two businessmen convicted of bribing Menendez and other crimes — Fred Daibes and Wael Hana.

Daibes, a prominent New Jersey developer whose case came up before the others, was sentenced seven years in jail and a $1.75 million fine. Hana got eight years and a $1.25 million fine.

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Before the sentence was issued, Daibes, told the judge he was numb, and later “borderline suicidal,” when the jury came in with a guilty verdict. “Not a day went by that I didn’t wonder how did this happen to me?”

He broke down in tears when asking the judge for a sentence of home confinement, for the sake of his autistic, 30-year-old son.

“I am going to ask you for mercy, not for me but for my son,” he told the judge.

Hana told the judge that the prosecution was a “misunderstanding.”

“I am an innocent man,” Hana told the judge. “I never bribed Senator Menendez or asked his office for influence.”

‘Substantial Evidence’

The judge told Hana that the evidence against him was “substantial” and that the jury verdict was “well grounded in the facts.”

“The gold bars were linked to you through serial numbers, and there was much, much more,” Stein said.

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The judge will preside over a March 18 trial of Menendez’s wife, Nadine, whose case was separated as she battles breast cancer.

Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez was a go-between who collected bribes and set up meetings with the businessmen and Egyptian officials. The senator took bribes of 13 gold bars, nearly $500,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Menendez illegally helped Egypt secure US military aid and sensitive information; protected an Egyptian monopoly that Hana secured to inspect meat bound for Egypt; influenced a US indictment in New Jersey of Daibes; and swayed New Jersey criminal probes of people close to another businessman who admitted bribing the senator with a Mercedes.

Prosecutors said it was “a grave abuse of his power” for Menendez to provide non-public information to Egypt and advocate for its interests.

Menendez is planning to ask President Donald Trump for a pardon, according to a person familiar with the matter. Former President Joe Biden declined a pardon request before leaving office.

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Whatever the sentence Wednesday, Menendez’s lawyers are preparing an appeal, arguing the case raises “important, difficult and novel questions.” They say prosecutors trampled on his rights under the US Constitution’s “Speech or Debate” clause, which protects lawmakers from legal actions arising from statements made during legislative activity. They also argue that prosecutors improperly included 11 exhibits among 3,000 given to jurors during their deliberations.

The judge rejected those arguments last week, prompting Menendez to say an appeals court will “hold these prosecutors to account.” For prosecutors to “put unconstitutional and inadmissible evidence in front of the jury” and escape any consequences “is outrageous,” he said.

In a separate filing, defense lawyers urged Stein to reject the 12-year term recommended by probation officials. Placing him in a tougher prison than a minimum-security facility, they said, would expose him to harm from other inmates, who “will likely render him a target of violence, extortion, harassment, and intimidation.”

Menendez’s lawyers submitted more than 140 letters urging a lenient sentence from his family, politicians, lobbyists, staffers, constituents and advocates for a variety of causes he took up in his three terms in the Senate, as well as earlier service in the House and New Jersey government.

A few themes emerged about Menendez. He was a powerful advocate for Latino causes like battling Cuba’s regime, fighting for immigration reform, and seeking disaster relief for Puerto Rico. One letter came from the husband of a New Jersey federal judge whose son was murdered by a disgruntled lawyer who showed up at their house.

Support ‘Beyond Words’

“During this unspeakable time of grief, Senator Menendez was there for my family, offering support that went beyond words,” wrote Mark Anderl, the husband of US District Judge Esther Salas. Anderl was also shot several times by the gunman.

Another letter came from Menendez’s daughter, Alicia, an anchor on MSNBC.

“I see Bob Menendez not as a powerful politician, but as a scrappy kid from a small town who learned to be tough as a means of survival,” she wrote. “Much of my dad’s life happened so young: elected to office at 19, his father dead by suicide at 23. I have heard the former story more times than I can count, the latter exactly once.”

The case is US v. Menendez, 23-cr-490, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

--With assistance from Bob Van Voris and Jazper Lu.

(Updates with Hana sentence starting in second paragraph)

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