Sen. Bob Menendez leaves the Daniel Patrick Moynihan federal courthouse in Manhattan on Monday, May 20, 2024, where his corruption trial entered its second week. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Federal prosecutors want former Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to at least 15 years behind bars, saying he deserves substantial prison time for a “historically unique” and long-running bribery and foreign influence scheme that implicated national security.
Prosecutors also urged Judge Sidney H. Stein to sentence businessmen Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, who were convicted in July alongside the ex-senator, to 10 years and 9 years, respectively, and order the three men to pay fines of over $5.8 million, combined.
Such penalties will “provide just punishment for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust, and to deter others from ever engaging in similar conduct,” prosecutors wrote in a 108-page brief filed Friday.
Sentencing is set for Jan. 29 in Manhattan.
Under sentencing guidelines, Menendez, 72, faces 24 to 30 years in prison, but the U.S. Probation Office recommended 12 years, acknowledging his crimes were “among the most heinous” of corruption offenses but saying his age and history of civic service warrant a shorter term, court filings show.
Prosecutors agreed that a sentence shorter than the guidelines direct is “reasonable” because of Menendez’s age. Still, the 15 years they want would be roughly seven times longer than what defense attorneys asked for last week, when they suggested 21 to 27 months of incarceration.
But prosecutors argued that Menendez — a Senate Democrat since 2006 who helmed the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time of his September 2023 indictment — was the first person ever convicted of serving as a foreign agent while in public office.
Only 12 U.S. senators, dating back to 1807, have been charged with crimes, aside from Menendez, they added.
“Even leaving aside their historical rarity, the defendants’ crimes amount to an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch, to corrupt the nation’s core sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement,” prosecutors wrote.
They summarized crimes that took nine weeks of trial testimony to detail, including that Menendez promised to influence national security including U.S. military aid, divulged sensitive information to Egypt that risked the safety of employees at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, pressured U.S. agriculture officials to ignore the halal meat-exporting monopoly he helped Hana secure in Egypt, and tried to disrupt multiple felony criminal proceedings, including by influencing the selection of U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
“The gravity of each of these promised abuses of power is only underscored by the naked greed that motivated them,” prosecutors wrote.
Hana and Daibes showered Menendez and his wife Nadine with hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes including cash, gold bars, paychecks for a fake job for Nadine Menendez, a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible and more, prosecutors said.
“They did so to aid their own businesses and deflect government scrutiny of themselves and their associates. And Menendez, who swore an oath to represent the United States and the state of New Jersey, instead put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” prosecutors said.
Beyond imprisonment, prosecutors urged Stein to order the men to forfeit the proceeds of their crimes. For Menendez, that would amount to $922,188 in cash, as well as the riches he reaped from the bribery scheme, which include the Mercedes-Benz, gold bars, an exercise machine and an air purifier, according to the brief.
They also asked the judge to fine Menendez at least $2.8 million, Daibes at least $1.75 million, and Hana at least $1.25 million, arguing that their crimes were financially motivated and they’re likely to retain significant assets even after forfeiture.
Menendez, Hana, and Daibes have repeatedly asked for a new trial, most recently over a series of evidentiary errors prosecutors admitted to in November that exposed jurors during deliberations to insufficiently redacted exhibits. Stein last month rejected the defense team’s August request for a retrial but has yet to rule on their more recent request.
Nadine Menendez and businessman Jose Uribe were also charged in the scheme. But Uribe pleaded guilty in a cooperation deal and Stein ordered a separate trial, now set to start Feb. 5, for Nadine Menendez to accommodate her treatment for breast cancer.
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