I have now read the indictment of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez in its entirety. It’s not fun reading. To be honest, though, I spent most of the time cringing but still wondering whether or not what I was learning really constituted a crime or crimes.
It looks like Menendez is clearly guilty of filing false financial disclosure forms, so he has a criminal problem no matter what. There’s one count that has to do with causing pilots to make illegal communications with air traffic control that I never found an explanation for, so I can’t really offer any analysis of that.
Most of the indictment focuses on four areas: helping expedite travel visas for the girlfriends of a friend and donor, advocating in favor of enforcement of the friend and donor’s contract with a port in the Dominican Republic, pushing back on a Medicare fraud case filed against this same friend and donor, and financial contributions and gifts from this friend and donor that are supposed to constitute bribery.
The details are unseemly, to say the least, but we should also look at this within the proper context. The donations were not illegal in and of themselves, but only as part of an alleged quid pro quo arrangement. It’s scandalous that one rich individual can legally give so much money to a U.S. Senator, but that’s an indictment of our campaign finance laws, not of Senator Menendez.
The question should be what a senator is legally entitled to do for a friend, regardless of whether or not that friend routinely fills their coffers with cash. I say this because it is clear that Bob Menendez and Salomon Melgen were more than mere acquaintances or political allies. Menendez spent much of his vacation time with Melgen, and presumably not just because Melgen provided free accommodations. Can you not call up your friend, the senator from New Jersey, and ask him to help make sure your girlfriend can get an entry visa to visit the United States? Is it a crime for a senator to inquire about a contract at a foreign port on behalf of a friend?
These are the arguments than the senator will be making in court, and working against him will be the financial contributions and gifts his friend bestowed on him, the timing of those gifts, and the fact that Menendez sought to hide those gifts by filing false disclosure statements.
On the other hand, most of what Menendez did he did in plain sight by communicating or having his staffers communicate with other government agencies like the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security.
Do other senators not do the same on behalf of people who are both friends and big donors?
As I said at the top, Menendez is clearly guilty of filing false disclosures and, as part of that, he accepted illegal gifts in the form of free air travel and hotel accommodations that he only belatedly paid for. He has a big problem.
But the other 99 senators must be looking at this indictment with great concern. Our system is rotten, but most of what Menendez is accused of doing is certainly not unique to him.
What I am willing to say is that the people of New Jersey should be very displeased with how Bob Menendez prioritized his job. He spent a tremendous amount of time looking out for the interests of his close friend, a person who had clearly defrauded the Medicare system, and he should have been spending that time helping more humble and ethical people who were actually his constituents.
