The former American senator has 11 years in prison for taking bribes, acting as a foreign agent

New York (AP) – The former United States senator. Bob Menéndez He was sentenced on Wednesday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of gold and effective and acting as an agent of Egypt; Crimes that his lawyer said he has made fun of “Bob Bob of Gold”.

The judge delivered the sentence after Menéndez went to the Court, saying that he had lost everything that mattered to him, except his family. The Democrat resigned last year after becoming one of the few American senators convicted while in office.

“You were successful, powerful, he stopped at the apex of our political system,” said the United States District Judge Sidney H. Stein, Menéndez in a Chamber of the Manhattan Full Court. “Somewhere along the way, and I don’t know when it was, you lost your course and work for the public good work for your good.”

The former senator was convicted of Sell ​​your influence once considerable For bribes that are worth a fortune. The FBI agents who registered their home found $ 480,000, some fillings inside boots and clothing pockets, and gold bars worth approximately $ 150,000.

Prosecutors said that in exchange for the loot, which also included a luxury car, Menéndez made corrupt favors for three New Jersey businessmen. They said that he tried to protect the associates from criminal investigations, helped two of them in commercial businesses with foreign powers, and also met with Egyptian intelligence officials and took measures to help that country access millions of dollars in help United States military.

“What has been the result?” Stein said. “You lost your seat in the Senate. You lost your presidency and lost your good name. “

Menéndez, 71, portrayed the judge as a comprehensive figure, emphasizing his public service decades and declaring that he was punished for the experience. Then, speaking with journalists with television cameras and microphones outside, he became challenging.

“I am innocent,” he proclaimed, promising to appeal.

Menéndez, who won A prosecution in another case of corruption a decade agoHe aligned with the recent criticisms of President Donald Trump to the judicial system, particularly in New York City.

“This process is political and is damaged to the center. I hope that President Trump cleans the Cess well and restores the integrity of the system, ”said Menéndez, reading a sheet of paper.

The judge ordered him to report to the prison on June 6.

The governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said that despite Menéndez’s achievements, “he will be remembered for putting his own interests and financial gains ahead of the public interest.” Menéndez’s successor, American Democratic Senator Andy Kim, said the sentence is a reminder that no one should be above the law, “no matter his title or the power he has.”

Two of the men convicted of bribing Menéndez also obtained a substantial prison on Wednesday. The judge sentenced the real estate developer Fred Daibes to seven years in prison. Wael Hana, an entrepreneur, was sentenced to eight years.

Daibes, 67, told Stein that his sentence had left him “a suicidal limit.” Hana professed that he was innocent.

A third businessman declared himself guilty and Testified against Menéndez In a trial last year. Menéndez’s wife, Nadine, faces a March trial for many of the same positions.

A dozen American senators have been accused while they were in office, but only four before Menéndez was convicted and that those convictions were put into appeal.

Menéndez resigned last August, a month after his conviction, but by then he had been exhausted from his power. After he was accused in 2023, he was forced to deliver his powerful position as president of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

His trial tralated his deals with the Egyptian officials and his search to help three men who bathed him with lucrative gifts found during a 2022 raid at his home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said that Menéndez committed a “truly serious violation of trust” by serving the interests of Egypt while working to protect a meat certification monopoly that Hana had established with the Egyptian government.

“His time in the Senate was a privilege. It should have been his own reward, or it would have been if it was not corrupt, ”said Monteleoni.

Among other things, Menéndez provided Egyptian officials with information about the United States embassy staff in Cairo and Ghost wrote a letter to the senators who encouraged them to raise a control of $ 300 million in military aid to Egypt.

For other bribes, prosecutors said, Menéndez tried to persuade a federal prosecutor in New Jersey to be easy with Daibes, a politically influential real estate developer accused of bank fraud.

The businessman José Uribe testified that he helped Nadine Menéndez obtain a Mercedes-Benz convertible after the senator sought to press State prosecutors to leave the criminal probes of his associates.

Menéndez has insisted that his interactions with Egyptian officials were normal for the head of the Foreign Relations Committee and always puts American interests first. He denied taking bribes and said that the gold bars belonged to his wife.

“Your honor, I’m far from being a perfect man. I have committed more than my part of mistakes and bad decisions, ”Menéndez told the judge. “I have done much rather than bad. I ask you, your honor, to judge me in that context. “

Stein said he took into account the public service, age and health of Menéndez by deciding his punishment, which could have been between 24 and 30 years in prison under the judgment.

Menéndez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants arose from the poverty and trauma of his father’s suicide when he was 23 years old to become “the American sleep epitome”, which rises from the mayor of Union City, New Jersey , until decades in Congress, before. His conviction “made a national phrase.”

“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” said defense lawyer Adam Fee to the judge.