Menendez prostitution claims fake, escort says

An escort who appeared in a video claiming to have been paid by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., for sex has admitted to making the whole thing up for money.

The woman, who was one of two prostitutes who were supposedly solicited by Menendez on trips to the Dominican Republic, told investigators she received payment from a lawyer to make the tape with a friend.

According to the Washington Post, the escort identified the lawyer who approached her and a friend to make the tape. That lawyer in turn identified a second lawyer who provided the script and the money to pay the two women.

Menendez has denied the allegations wholesale, and an FBI investigation into his activities in the Dominican Republic has found no evidence to support the claims of the anonymous tipster.

“It’s amazing to me that anonymous, nameless, faceless individuals on a Web site can drive that type of story into the mainstream, but that’s what they’ve done successfully,” Menendez said. “Now, nobody can find them. No one ever met them. No one ever talked to them, but that’s where we’re at. So the bottom line is all of those smears are absolutely false and, you know, that’s the bottom line.”

The videos appeared on the conservative site The Daily Caller, which reported the women claimed they were promised $500 for sex from Menendez but only received $100.