Former Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years in prison in bribery case

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Former Sen. Bob Menendez on Wednesday was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty on 16 counts in the corruption trial connected with acting as a foreign agent.

Menendez, the 71-year-old former Democrat senator for New Jersey, was found guilty on July 16, 2024, in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

He also was ordered to forfeit $922,188.10.

"You stood at the apex of our political system," Judge Sidney Stein told Menendez. "Somewhere along the way, you lost your way.

"The fact that he was a public office holder who held a position of great public trust has to be taken into account," Stein said as he explained how he calculated the sentence based on the spoils of the crime that included gold bars, cash and a convertible. "When there's wrongdoing of this magnitude, there are serious consequences."

The judge said Menendez won't have to report to prison until June 6. His wife, Nadine, goes on trial on similar corruption and bribery charges on March 18. She is battling cancer.

Outside the courtroom, he said: "Regardless of the judge's comments, today, I am innocent, and I look forward to filing appeals on a whole host of issues."

Menendez called the Southern District of New York the "Wild West of political prosecutions."

"President Trump is right -- this process is political and it's corrupted to the core," said Menendez, who sought a pardon from Donald Trump, said. "I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system."

Sentencing guidelines suggest that Menendez serve 24 to 30 years in prison while the U.S. Probation Office calls for 12 years in prison. Menendez, who was charged before resigning, became the first sitting member of Congress to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent.

Prosecutors recommended Menendez spend 15 years in prison for what it called "naked greed" for abuse of power in his Senate office.

His lawyers urged the court to consider a sentence that "relies heavily on alternatives to incarceration."

The attorneys said a prison sentences essentially become a death sentence for the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"Senator Menendez has suffered extreme public shame and upheaval, and his finances and reputation are destroyed, likely for the rest of his life," his attorneys said in court filings. "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."

Prosecutors, though, said Menendez's crimes are so serious and brazen that they require a prison sentence.

"The sentences imposed today result from an egregious abuse of power at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch of the federal government," U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon said. "Robert Menendez was trusted to represent the United States and the State of New Jersey, but instead he used his position to help his co-conspirators and a foreign government, in exchange for bribes like cash, gold, and a luxury car.

"The sentences imposed today send a clear message that attempts at any level of government to corrupt the nation's foreign policy and the rule of law will be met with just punishment."

A federal bribery trial against Menendez in 2017 ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

In the latter case, two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were found guilty. Earlier Wednesday, Stein sentenced Hana to eight years and Daibes to seven years in prison.