Legal experts and federal prosecutors warned that a win for Menendez could essentially legalize public corruption and pay-to-play politics at a time when American faith in the political system is at a notable low.
After a court battle lasting nearly two years, the bribery case against Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has been declared a mistrial, when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision after nine weeks of testimony and a week of deliberation. Ten of the 12 jury members had reportedly voted to acquit the senator while two other members refused to back away from their view that the senator should be convicted.
Media outlets have thus far treated the mistrial declaration as a major victory for the senator, who was facing 18 different corruption charges over allegations that the lavish political donations, free flights, and vacations he received from wealthy ophthalmologist and businessman Salomon Melgen led him to intervene on the doctors behalf.
The outcome of the trial has also been heralded as a setback for the Justice Department, which has found itself limited in its ability to combat public corruption in the court system after a recent Supreme Court decision helped to exonerate former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell from a bribery conviction. That decision subsequently led to the dismissal of bribery convictions against three former public officials, including a U.S. congressman. Yet, a mistrial is not nearly as troubling as would be a potential acquittal, which prosecutors warned could essentially legalize the bribery of public officials.
Menendezs case is notable compared to other recent bribery cases for several reasons. First, Menendez did not report the gifts or free flights he received from Melgen as is required by law. Menendez and his defense throughout the trial asserted that this was merely an accidental oversight, not a criminal lie, even though these gifts went unreported after the corruption allegations surfaced.
In addition, the nature of the gifts at the center of the Menendez trial is exceptional. In the McDonnell case, the former Virginia governor was accused of having received $175,000 from a businessman and later helping him to promote his product. Menendez, however, received over $1 million in political donations, luxury vacation and flights on Melgens private plane all while lobbying on Melgens behalf regarding an $8.9 million Medicare dispute in which Melgen was accused of defrauding the federal program, as well as securing visas for three of Melgens girlfriends and a Dominican Republic port contract.
It also emerged during the trial that Menendez had likely received the services of underage prostitutes as a gift while hosted by Melgen in the Dominican Republic. Though the defense called this claim easily disprovable, federal prosecutors asserted that they had specific, corroborated allegations that defendants Menendez and Melgen had sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, and commented on Menendezs previous pursuit of underage women.
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