Serving as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NY) has now reportedly been placed under a federal criminal investigation, once again, just a few years in the wake of being put on trial for other corruption charges.
The details regarding the focal point of the new investigation have not been made clear at all, but attorney Antranig Aslanian Jr, a known associate of Mendez, was subpoenaed to speak in front of the Southern District of New York and stated via an interview that the prosecution was seeking to find out information regarding the senator’s interactions with people who he knew, and they asked about a company “authorized to certify halal meat for export.”
“Senator Menendez is aware of an investigation that was reported on today,” stated Michael Soliman, an adviser for Menendez. “However, he does not know the scope of the investigation.”
“As always, should any official inquiries be made, the Senator is available to provide any assistance that is requested of him or his office,” tacked on Soliman.
Back in 2015, Menendez was officially indicted on charges of bribery for allegedly taking “luxury vacations, golf outings, campaign donations and expensive flights” from Salomon Melgen, a physician in Florida, as payment for political favors. A federal jury from Florida officially convicted Melgen back in April on “67 charges for operating what prosecutors called a massive scheme that robbed Medicare out of as much as $105 million,” explained a report from the Palm Beach Post.
Prosecutors kicked off the investigation of Menendez when they were first told back in 2012 that Menendez was allegedly making use of underage prostitutes from the Dominican Republic.
The jury was fairly evenly split throughout the trial and resulted in the declaration of a mistrial.
Officials with the DOJ were slated to recharge Menendez once the judge dismissed 7 of the total of 18 charges against him, explained the report.
A different report from Semafor stated that the brand new criminal case slammed against Menendez seems to almost mirror the previous criminal case that Menendez was forced to deal with.
The report highlighted that a team of federal prosecutors almost never lease in court, which means that the fact that they are calling for a new criminal case against Menendez “after its humiliating public failure to convict him” most likely equates to the fact that they think they have a case that is quite a bit stronger than before.
Upon the first mistrial being declared for the first case, Menendez quickly threw up the race card, implying that it was racists that were the reason he was put under heavy scrutiny.
“Certain elements of the FBI and of our state cannot stand, or even worse, accept that the Latino kid from Union City and Hudson County could grow up to be a United States senator and be honest,” expressed Menendez while just outside of the courthouse in the wake of the mistrial being declared by U.S. District Court Judge William Walls.