Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Senator Bob Melendez going back to court - retrial
Topic Started: Jan 19 2018, 12:25 PM (140 Views)
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/prosecutors-retry-jersey-sen-bob-menendez-52471475?cid=social_twitter_abcn
Quote:
 
Sen. Bob Menendez might spend 2018 asking voters to re-elect him and jurors to acquit him.

Federal prosecutors told a federal judge in New Jersey on Friday that they will seek a retrial of the Democratic senator, whose 11-week corruption trial ended in a hung jury in November.

The filing to the judge seeks a retrial "at the earliest possible date." Menendez didn't immediately comment on the development.

Menendez and his longtime friend, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, were charged in 2015 with a bribery scheme in which Menendez allegedly traded political favors for gifts and campaign donations. Menendez also was charged with making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.

Menendez, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has been in the Senate since 2006, is expected to run for re-election, though he hasn't officially announced his candidacy.

Several jurors interviewed after the first trial said as many as 10 of 12 members of the panel were in favor of acquittal.

In December, the defense renewed its pre-trial motions to have U.S. District Judge William Walls dismiss the charges. Attorneys wrote that "scrutiny of the evidence remains warranted, especially given the press statements by jurors and alternates about the lack of proof."

Prosecutors sought to tie gifts and campaign donations from Melgen to meetings and conversations Menendez had with executive branch officials on matters that would have benefited Melgen's business interests.

One such matter was a $9 million Medicare billing dispute involving Melgen's ophthalmology practice.

Defense lawyers argued during the trial that the gifts, which included a stay at a luxury Paris hotel and trips on Melgen's private jet to his villa in the Dominican Republic, were an expression of the pair's longtime friendship and weren't bribes.

They also contended Menendez's meetings with officials including former Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were to advance broader policy objectives.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Davis
Member Avatar
Fulla-Carp
Before this is over he will have had 3 years of misery. Seems to me they should just let it go at this point based on a hung jury already.
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Davis
Jan 19 2018, 03:24 PM
Seems to me they should just let it go at this point based on a hung jury already.
If you insist.

Quote:
 
The U.S. Justice Department has dropped its bribery case against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, lifting a cloud that had hovered over his expected 2018 reelection bid and removing a potential distraction for his party in a key election year.

Menendez, a longtime fixture of New Jersey politics, was accused of accepting gifts from a wealthy benefactor, ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, in exchange for official favors.

His first criminal trial ended last year in a mistrial after a jury could not come to a unanimous verdict, and federal prosecutors had said this month they would seek to retry him.

“From the very beginning, I never wavered in my innocence and my belief that justice would prevail,” Menendez said in a statement. “I am grateful that the Department of Justice has taken the time to reevaluate its case and come to the appropriate conclusion.”

Abbe David Lowell, Menendez’s attorney, added: “We are pleased and grateful that the Justice Department made the right decision to end this case.”

The Justice Department’s decision marks a major political victory not only for Menendez, but also for the Democratic Party, which is hoping to regain control of the U.S. Senate in the upcoming midterm elections in November.

A court order posted on Monday afternoon formally dismissed the case at the Justice Department’s request.

The decision came days after U.S. District Judge William Walls threw out some of the bribery charges on the grounds that prosecutors had failed to show that about $660,000 in political contributions from Melgen to help benefit Menendez’s 2012 reelection campaign were part of any fraudulent scheme.

Walls said the mere fact that some of the money arrived around the same time that Menendez took actions that could benefit Melgen was not enough to prove a “quid pro quo” arrangement.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Davis
Member Avatar
Fulla-Carp
Ha.
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mikhailoh
Member Avatar
If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
I don't know. Seems like anybody from New Jersey ought to get a handicap on corruption, kind of like golf.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Senate Ethics (cough) Committee finds him guilty.

Strongly-worded letter follows:

https://s16344.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Senator-Robert-Menendez-Public-Letter-of-Admonition.pdf
Quote:
 
Pursuant to its authority under Senate Resolution 338, the Select Committee on Ethics (the Committee) has conducted an inquiry into allegations related to your interactions with
Dr. Salomon Melgen. The Committee has found that over a six-year period you knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts o f significant value from Dr. Melgen without obtaining required Committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law. Additionally, while accepting these gifts, you used your position as a Member ofthe Senate to advance Dr. Melgen's personal and business interests. The Committee has determined that this conduct violated Senate Rules, federal law, and applicable standards of conduct. Accordingly, the Committee issues you this Public Letter of Admonition, and also directs you to repay the fair market value of all impermissible gifts not already repaid.
...
Based upon the totality of the evidence, the Committee has concluded as follows:

I. From 2006 through 2013, you accepted numerous things of value from Dr. Melgen, including, but not limited to, travel on private and commercial flights, a luxury hotel stay in Paris, and lodging on 19 occasions at a Dominican Republic villa. You did not pay fair market value for, or, where required, obtain necessary written approval from the Committee to accept these gifts.

2. Over the course of several years, you failed to list gifts you had accepted from
Dr. Melgen on your public Financial Disclosure Reports, as you were legally required to do.

3. During the same time period in which you accepted these gifts, you used your position as a Member ofthe Senate to advance Dr. Melgen's personal and business interests. At
Dr. Melgen's request, you:

a. Intervened in a matter where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) found that Dr. Melgen had overbilled Medicare by more than $8.9 million. This intervention included persistent advocacy before multiple senior CMS officials over the course ofthree years, reaching, at its height, your meeting with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

b. Advocated before federal agencies on behalf of ICSSI, a port security services company owned by Dr. Melgen. This advocacy included an in-person meeting with a senior official in which you requested that the U.S. Department of State intervene in a contract dispute between ICSSI and the Dominican Republic. During this meeting, you threatened to hold a public hearing and to call the official to testify ifthe State Department failed to resolve the matter. You also acted to protect ICSSI's contract to provide scanning services in the Dominican Republic by requesting that U.S. Customs and Border Protection delay its planned donation of screening equipment.

c. Assisted foreign nationals obtain visas to visit Dr. Melgen in the United States, including, in one case, appealing directly to a U.S. ambassador to seek reconsideration ofa visa denial.
...
For the reasons set forth above, the Committee concludes that your actions violated Senate Rules and related statutes, and reflected discredit upon the Senate. Accordingly,you must repay the fair market value of all impermissible gifts not already repaid, and amend your Financial Disclosure Repmts to include all reportable gifts. Finally, by this letter, you are hereby severely admonished.



A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply