By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Robert Menendez, a disgraced former U.S. senator from New Jersey, is set to spend at least 15 years in prison after being convicted of corruption after betraying voters by putting his office “for sale” in exchange for bribes, the U.S. prosecutors said.
The recommendation was filed Thursday night in federal court in Manhattan, a week after Menendez’s lawyers pleaded for leniency, citing the 71-year-old’s age, decades of public service, charity work, family devotion and financial and professional ruin.
Probation officials recommended a sentence of 12 years in prison, which Menendez’s lawyers described as an effective “death sentence.”
Menendez, a Democrat who spent 18-1/2 years in the Senate and chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was convicted last July on all 16 counts he faced, including acting as an agent of a foreign government.
Prosecutors said Menendez accepted gold, cash, a Mercedes-Benz ( OTC: ) and other rewards in exchange for political favors, including providing military aid to Egypt and aid to Qatar, as part of a bribery conspiracy.
In a filing Thursday, prosecutors also recommended that the two New Jersey businessmen convicted with Menendez, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, spend at least 10 and nine years in prison, respectively.
Motivated by “sheer greed,” the defendants engaged in crimes that were “an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the legislature, to corrupt the nation’s fundamental sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement,” prosecutors said.
The defendants requested short prison sentences, none longer than two years, and no time behind bars. They are scheduled to be sentenced on January 29 in federal court in Manhattan.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, is seeking to postpone a Feb. 5 trial on related charges, citing potential negative publicity from her husband’s sentencing.
A FEELING OF ENTITLEMENT
In their sentencing recommendation, prosecutors said Menendez was the first senator convicted of abusing a Senate committee leadership position and the first person convicted of serving as a foreign agent while a public official.
Menendez is also charged with attempting to obstruct criminal investigations in New Jersey on behalf of Daibes and former insurance broker Jose Uribe. Uribe testified at the trial for the government.
Prosecutors said Menendez committed the crimes even after a Senate ethics committee warned him that he had accepted gifts from a wealthy donor, Salomon Melgen, without required approval and disclosure.
The relationship between Menendez and Melgen was at the back of the 2017 corruption case against the senator, which ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked.
“Menendez’s willingness to engage in the charged scheme immediately after receiving an official reprimand for similar conduct speaks volumes for his character,” prosecutors said.
In addition, prosecutors said arguments that Menendez was sufficiently punished reflected a “deeply misguided sense of entitlement.”
Robert Menendez maintains his innocence and is expected to appeal his conviction.
An appeal may include an argument that jurors were improperly allowed during deliberations to review evidence that was not presented at trial.
Menendez’s attorneys asked for a prison term “significantly” below the 21 to 27 months they say is recommended under federal sentencing guidelines. Probation officials estimated the guidelines recommendation at 24-1/2 to 30-1/2 years.
Hana and Daibes requested sentences of a maximum of one and two years, respectively.
Attorneys for Menendez and Daibes did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.
Hana’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, called the 10-year sentence for his client “inhumane and unjust.” Nadine Menendez’s attorney, Barry Coburn, declined to comment.
