Former US Senator Bob Menendez is sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery

Menendez, a former US senator, received an 11-year term for bribing people with gold bars in return for favors.

In exchange for political favors that benefited businesspeople in Egypt and New Jersey, former US Senator Bob Menendez accepted bribes, including cash and gold bars, and was given an 11-year prison sentence.

In Manhattan federal court, US District Judge Sidney Stein imposed the sentence months after a jury found Menendez guilty on 16 criminal counts, including bribery, fraud, and operating as a foreign agent—a charge never before brought against a serving US senator.

“You succeeded, you were strong. Stein informed Menendez during sentencing that “you stood at the apex of our political system.”

“I have no idea what motivated you to carry out these crimes.”

Menendez, 71, chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before to his collapse and had been a Democratic senator from New Jersey for almost 20 years. In August, one month after his conviction, he resigned from the Senate.

Menendez begged for leniency, noting his decades of public service, and claimed he was “chastened” by the conviction in a teary speech to the court.

“I have lost everything I have cared about, except for family,” he remarked. “It is a punishment to be awake every day for someone who has dedicated his entire life to public service.”

Despite his appeal, Manhattan US Attorney’s Office prosecutors had pressed for a 15-year term, claiming that Menendez’s wrongdoing had seriously damaged public confidence.

“Very few crimes involve the kind of abuse of power that Menendez committed,” prosecutor Paul Monteleoni stated in court.

According to the prosecution, Menendez abetted Qatari interests, influenced U.S. military supplies to Egypt, and meddled in local ally trials. He was lavishly bribed in return with cash, gold, and a fancy Mercedes-Benz.

In order for Menendez to attend his wife Nadine Menendez’s impending corruption trial, the judge ordered him to go to prison on June 6. When her attorneys claimed she needed treatment for breast cancer, the trial that was initially planned to take place alongside him was postponed.

Her plea of not guilty has been entered, and her trial is scheduled for March 18.

Earlier in the day, two businessmen from New Jersey who were found guilty of the bribery conspiracy also received sentences.

Wael Hana was sentenced to slightly over eight years in prison for allegedly facilitating payments from Egyptian interests, while real estate developer Fred Daibes was given seven years.

Menendez’s defense team had first suggested a maximum sentence of two and a half years in prison, pointing to his age, public service, and financial ruin.

Defense lawyer Adam Fee changed the proposal, requesting that the judge impose a maximum term of eight years, after finding out about the punishments given to Daibes and Hana.

Judge Stein finally imposed a harsher punishment, ending Menendez’s decades-long political career, despite the request for a lesser one.