The charges revolve around Mr. Menendez’s relationship with Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye surgeon and political benefactor. Dr. Melgen resisted entreaties by the Justice Department to testify against Mr. Menendez and was ultimately charged alongside him.
Prosecutors described Mr. Menendez’s offices on Capitol Hill as a hub of corrupt dealings, a place where the senator used his chief of staff to solicit gifts from Dr. Melgen, find out what he wanted in return and make sure it got done.
The indictment also reveals how the rise of super PACs, unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and subsequent legal changes, have opened a new channel for the wealthy to trade campaign cash for official favors.
Through his company, Vitreo-Retinal Consultants, Mr. Melgen directed $700,000 in corporate contributions to Majority PAC, a super PAC intended to help Democrats retain control of the Senate. Mr. Melgen instructed the group to use those contributions to aid Mr. Menendez’s 2012 re-election campaign.
Among the favors for Dr. Melgen, the department said, Mr. Menendez encouraged the Obama administration to change the Medicare reimbursement policy in a way that would make millions for the doctor. Prosecutors said he also tried to push a port security deal that Dr. Melgen was involved in, and helped the surgeon’s foreign girlfriends obtain travel visas to the United States.
A bribery charge is among the most serious accusations of corruption the federal government can make. Prosecutors often opt to file a lesser charge of accepting a gratuity, which is easier to prove. A bribe amounts to the purchase of an official act, while a gratuity is seen as a way to curry favor with powerful officials.
Mr. Menendez is the first senator to face federal bribery charges since another New Jersey Democrat, Harrison A. Williams Jr., was indicted in 1980 as part of the federal corruption investigation known as Abscam [played by Jeremy Renner in David O. Russell's American Hustle; maybe Menendez can look forward to his moment on the silver screen]. In 2002, an ethics scandal deterred Senator Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey, from a re-election bid.
To prove their case, prosecutors must show that Mr. Menendez’s actions and Dr. Melgen’s gifts were explicitly traded. The two men argue that they were longtime friends and that they exchanged gifts as part of that friendship.
“Prosecutors at the Justice Department don’t know the difference between friendship and corruption,” Mr. Menendez said on Wednesday.
The senator’s involvement in Dr. Melgen’s dispute with Medicare is the most damning element of the department’s indictment. Prosecutors cite emails showing that Mr. Menendez’s office was deeply involved in the dispute.The DOJ indictment raises the possibility of putting the whole sordid, venal system on display. It is a pay-to-play scheme, and Menendez is a skilled, extroverted practitioner. He basically advertised his senate office as a fee-for-service enterprise, soliciting foreigners to bring him their visa difficulties. I have assumed that Menendez has been under investigation for years, if not decades -- but possibly Menendez and Torricelli morphed together in my understanding.
Now that the other shoe has dropped one wonders how long Zionist groups will continue to run their full-page ads extolling the courage and friendship of Senator Menendez.
Unless Menendez pleads out, he is going to jail. His "friendship" defense is ridiculous. Government business is not supposed to be guided by personal like or dislike. Public opinion towards the U.S. political class is at a historic nadir; the same thing goes for the ostentatiously wealthy. If the Menendez case goes to trial, a lot of bombshells are in the offing. That is why puckering beltway assholes are well-nigh audible.
During the Obama years we have seen the creation of a new system of politics. Citizens United was a knee-jerk response to Obama's successful crowdfunding during the 2008 campaign. The rich realized that their overwhelming advantage in a democratic system -- their wealth -- could be neutralized by millions of small donations made via the Internet. The plutocrats dreamed nightmares of Che Guevara riding to power on the World Wide Web.
But after Citizens United no longer is a politician with national aspirations guided primarily by the math of voting blocs. Now the most important math is found in the bottom line of donations made by the super-rich, what is publicly referred to as the "billionaire primary." Candidates trundle off to Palm Springs or Las Vegas and prostrate themselves at the feet of a David Koch or a Sheldon Adelson.
A long, contentious federal bribery trial puts this new system in the spotlight. Everyone knows it is corrupt, spotlighting it will generate calls for reform. The plutocrats would prefer not to have to deal with deflecting such calls. So this morning I am sure the conversation Menendez is having is whether to dig in and wait for a new chief executive in 2017 to spike the DOJ case -- I'm sure either Hillary or whomever the GOP nominates would be amenable -- or, after reaping as many pledges of financial consideration as he can muster, falling on his sword and pleading to a lesser charge, serving out his penalty time in a comfortable federal prison looking out on green hills.
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