Nothing gives liberals heartburn more than being equated to former President Donald Trump, but that’s what Sen Dick Durbin (D-IL) did regarding the corruption charges facing Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), saying they’re “equally serious” to the ones facing the former president. That’s probably not what Bob wanted to hear from Senate Democratic leadership:
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) called the charges against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who was indicted this week on federal bribery charges alongside his wife, equally as serious as the charges brought against former President Donald Trump.
“It bears reminding us of what I've said about the indictments against Donald Trump, equally serious charges,” Durbin said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
“These are, in fact, indictments that have to be proven under the rule of law, the person who is accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and it's the responsibility of the government to prove that case,” Durbin said. “I said that about Donald Trump, I'll say the same thing about Bob Menendez.”
On Friday, the New Jersey senior senator was indicted for the second time in 10 years, after a 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018. In the latest investigation, Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, were accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, which included a luxury car and gold bars. (via Washington Examiner)
Spencer had more on this last week:
According to the indictment, Senator Menendez and his wife "agreed to and did accept hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes" in return for Menendez's "power and influence as a senator to protect and enrich" the three individuals identified as Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes and "to benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt."
Notably, Menendez serves as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value," the indictment says, in addition to allegations that Menendez "provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt."
When federal agents searched the Menendez home, the New Jersey Democrat had $100,000 worth of gold bars, plus $480,000 in cash strewn about the house—some stuffed into clothing articles.
The difference between the Menendez and Trump legal entanglements is that Menendez’s appears to be grounded in allegations lobbed against him that stretch back years. Trump’s indictments are politically motivated, with some stretching criminal statutes to their extremes, while others were essentially made up, like the Stormy Daniels hush money case, since those technically are a) misdemeanors and b) expired under the statute of limitations. New York’s finest anti-Trump lawyers got creative in elevating this case into a full-blown criminal circus. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified document case is probably the strongest against Trump. However, his January 6 indictment reads as if it was drafted after a few hits of Hunter Biden’s crack pipe: they’re trying to bring Trump’s state of mind into court at the time of the riot.
There were no gold bars, envelopes of cash tucked everywhere, and a paper trail allegedly showing blatant corruption. That’s Mr. Menendez. Durbin quietly tries to send Bob a message: get out, please.
Spencer wrote about gold bar Bob's presser this morning.