Justice Department to retry Democrat Senator Robert Menendez in corruption case

Justice Department to retry Democrat Senator Robert Menendez in corruption case

January 21, 2018

Mark Fischer / CCL

Remember Sen. Bob Menendez? He was prosecuted for “repeatedly pull[ing] strings to help [his doctor friend, Salomon Melgen] in a variety of areas: in getting his girlfriends U.S. visas, in trying to resolve the doctor’s $8.9 million billing dispute with Medicare, and in an effort to help [his] efforts to make money from a port security contract in the Dominican Republic,” according to the Washington Post. But while he was recently acquitted, his time in court isn’t quite over yet.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it is going to retry Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on bribery and corruption charges.

This comes roughly two months after initial court proceedings, which resulted in a mistrial over a hung jury.
Retrial
The DOJ filed a notice with the U.S. District Court of New Jersey on Friday announcing its intention to retry Sen. Menendez for alleged corruption and bribery, among other things.

A DOJ spokesperson stated:
Today, the United States filed a notice of intent to retry Sen. Robert Menendez and Dr. Salomon Melgen and requested that the court set the case for retrial at the earliest possible date. The conduct alleged in the indictment is serious and warrants retrial.
Menendez’s office maintains the senator’s innocence however. Their statement read:
We regret that the DOJ, after spending millions and millions of taxpayer dollars, and failing to prove a single allegation in a court of law, has decided to double down on an unjust prosecution. Evidently, they did not hear the overwhelming voices of the New Jerseyans who served on the jury this fall. Senator Menendez fully intends to be vindicated — again.
In addition to the notice of intent, the DOJ also filed a motion on Friday seeking to preclude the sort of improper arguments made during the original trial. The motion stated:
Throughout the first trial…the defendants invited the jury to nullify the law by making comments and arguments designed to politicize and racialize this case.
The Justice Department reportedly believes this played a large role in the outcome of the first trial.
Corruption and Bribery
Menendez’s initial indictment, issued on April 1, 2015, alleged one count of making false statements, one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery, and three counts of honest services fraud.
This was the result of a 2013 federal grand jury investigation into Robert Menendez’s ties with Salomon Melgen, his friend and a Florida ophthalmologist.
Some of the allegations were that Menendez “traveled on Melgen’s private jet to vacations in Paris and the Dominican Republic, and received $750,000 in campaign contributions from the doctor.” In exchange, the prosecutors argued, Menendez helped mistresses of Melgen to obtain visas, interceded in a Medicare dispute, and pressured U.S. officials into safeguarding a security contract in the Dominican Republic.
Upon announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney General Leslie Caldwell stated in part:
Government corruption — at any level of elected office — corrodes the public trust and weakens our democratic system. It is the fundamental responsibility of the Department of Justice to hold public officials accountable by conducting thorough investigations and seeking an indictment when the facts and the law support it.
The jury deliberated for more than a week over the case but was unable to reach a unanimous decision. The judge declared a mistrial.