Fighting for a good plea deal from the feds, Bob Menendez must have plotzed on Tuesday when he saw the headlines. This one is from the Washington Post: Sen. Bob Menendez accused of aiding Qatar in exchange for bribes. Well… better than aiding Russia or China I guess but, he’s a U.S. senator and he’s supposed to be aiding the citizens of New Jersey, not the citizens of Doha, Al Rayyan or Al Wakrah.
Shayna Jacobs wrote that he’s “facing a new set of federal bribery allegations in a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday that accuses him of providing assistance to the government of Qatar as well as Egypt. While the indictment does not add charges, it makes public previously unknown allegations of corruption by the longtime lawmaker, who headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until he was charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan several months ago. It is the second superseding charging document to be filed since Menendez surrendered in September. Two earlier versions of the indictment discussed efforts by Menendez, his wife Nadine and two associates to use the senator’s influence to aid the Egyptian government. Menendez has resisted calls to resign, and all defendants have pleaded not guilty.”
His trial isn’t for another 5 months. Meanwhile, New Jersey isn’t exactly standing by their senator, a career criminal. According to an October poll by Farleigh Dickinson University, “70% of the state’s residents want him to resign, rather than serve out his term. According to the latest results from the FDU Poll, Menendez has lost the support of voters across the political spectrum.”
The superseding indictment alleges that the senator brokered a multimillion-dollar real estate deal between a Qatari investor and Fred Daibes, a New Jersey developer who is also charged as a defendant in the case.
In August 2021, Menendez allegedly sent out a preview of his own news release praising Qatar before its actual release. It was forwarded to a Qatari official, according to the indictment, potentially showing a cozy relationship between the senator and Qatari contacts or that he was issuing the news release to please them.
After a trip to Egypt and Qatar with his wife in October 2021, Menendez allegedly did a web search for the value of a gold bar, court papers say in the updated documents. Prosecutors say Menendez and his spouse were paid off in gold, cash and other gifts. The indictment cites a text exchange between Daibes and Menendez in which Daibes allegedly offers him a selection of luxury watches ranging from $10,000 to $24,000.
Nadine allegedly was offered a no-show job by another of their associates, Wael Hana, an Egyptian businessman, according to the original indictment. Hana is also charged.
The superseding indictment accuses Menendez and his wife of trying to cover up the nature of bribes they allegedly took by claiming they were loans and that repayments were being made.
In an October superseding indictment, Menendez was charged with conspiring to act as a foreign agent while he was heading the Foreign Relations Committee and had access to sensitive information.
Many people are asking why the Senate hasn’t expelled Menendez the same way the House expelled George Santos. Could it be because Chuck Schumer is a worthless piece of shit? I think so. But Menendez isn’t the only one who was on the take from the Qataris. Josh Gerstein, Kyle Cheney and Caitlin Oprysko reported that two longtime Republican political consultants, Barry Bennett and Doug Watts, who backed Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign admitted in court filings Tuesday to deceiving the Justice Department about their lobbying activities on behalf of Qatar. They admit they accepted bribes from the Qatari government to promote Qatari interests in the Trump regime.
Gerstein, Cheney and Oprysko wrote that “Prosecutors indicated that Bennett and Watts have entered into ‘deferred prosecution’ agreements that will allow the charges to be dismissed after a year if the men comply with the terms of the deals. The two men face charges for scheming to conceal work for a foreign government and making false statements about their work. As part of the agreements, Bennett will pay a $100,000 fine, and Watts will pay $25,000. Both also agreed to abstain for a year from engaging in any lobbying or public relations work covered by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Bennett and Watts joined pro-Trump efforts after they departed the imploding campaign of then-GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson in 2016… Bennett took a job as a senior adviser for delegate issues on the Trump campaign, while Watts became the national executive director of a pro-Trump super PAC, the Committee for American Sovereignty.
