Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) remains a sitting US Senator. Congress had to boot Rep. George Santos (R-NY), but gold bar Bob can’t be expelled for obvious political reasons. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has pointed out a point of hypocrisy numerous times, even adding that the New Jersey Democrat’s alleged crimes are more severe than Santos'. If Santos had to go, so should Menendez, which isn’t a ludicrous point
In September, Mr. Menendez got busted for accepting bribes and acting as a foreign agent for Egyptian officials who showered the Menendez family with cars, offers to pay off their mortgage, and gold bars. At the time, Menendez chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Federal agents also found over $400,000 in cash stuffed in articles of clothing. The gold bars seem to be where most Democrats can’t look past, unlike Menendez’s past legal entanglements on corruption charges. Yet, he’s faced these charges before, and he feels confident that he could beat them again, albeit with a new attorney who shares this coincidence with the New Jersey liberal that you cannot make up (via NY Post) [emphasis mine]:
Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez is facing a new perfect storm of legal and political troubles — splitting from the super-lawyer defending him against charges of bribery, and seeing his polls plummet.
The New Jersey Democrat quietly split from his longtime powerhouse lawyer Abbe Lowell — who secured his acquittal on previous bribery charges — and instead signed up with Washington-based attorney Robert Luskin.
Ironically for an indictee fighting charges that he took bribes in gold bars, Luskin himself was once paid in gold bars by another client — earning him the nickname “Gold Bar Bob,” the same as the senator’s.
Menendez, 69, who has been in the political arena for half a century and a member of the US Senate since 2006, is facing record low poll numbers, with 70 percent of Garden State voters saying he should resign.
The Democrat’s latest troubles began in June 2022, when federal agents raided his Englewood Cliffs, NJ, home and found gold bars, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stuffed into the pockets of Menendez’s jackets.
There are two gold bar Bobs now. Having lived in New Jersey for most of my life, I wish I could say this is shocking—the whole corruption narrative—but I can’t. We sure know how to pick them in the Garden State.
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