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Former US senator Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting gold bars, a Mercedes convertible and half a million dollars in cash to advance the interests of the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Menendez, 71, a New Jersey Democrat, was once the powerful chair of the Senate foreign relations committee. The sentencing is the final chapter in fraught legal proceedings that last year led to Menendez’s resignation from his Senate seat and earned him the sobriquet “Gold Bar Bob”.
The sentence “result[s] from an egregious abuse of power at the highest levels of the legislative branch of the federal government”, said Danielle Sassoon, the US attorney for Manhattan, where Menendez was convicted following a nine-week trial.
Menendez “was trusted to represent the United States and the state of New Jersey, but instead he used his position to help his co-conspirators and a foreign government, in exchange for bribes like cash, gold and a luxury car”, Sassoon added.
He was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent, among other wrongdoing.
In court, he tearfully asked Judge Sidney Stein for mercy, noting his decades of public service in office, according to news reports. Outside court, he maintained his innocence and called himself a victim of a politically motivated prosecution.
The trial came after FBI agents in 2022 found more than $480,000 in cash stuffed into closets and clothing, as well as gold bars and the luxury car at Menendez’s New Jersey home.
In exchange for these items, Menendez agreed to use his influence as a senator to protect the interests of Egypt and Qatar.
He sought to pressure a US government official in a bid to shield a business monopoly that Egypt had granted to a longtime friend of Menendez’s wife. Menendez also ghostwrote a letter on behalf of Cairo to other Senators, arguing for the release of $300mn in aid to the north African country.
Menendez recommended that the president nominate a US attorney for New Jersey who he thought could help derail a federal criminal case targeting a real estate developer and longtime donor of his.
The ex-senator was expected to benefit Qatar, to in turn assist his donor, who was pursuing million-dollar investments from a fund with ties to the Middle Eastern government.
The friend of Menendez’s wife as well as the donor were also sentenced on Wednesday, to more than eight, and seven years in prison, respectively.
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