Letters searching for leniency for disgraced former senator Bob Menendez forward of his sentencing give perception into his private life, together with a press release from his MSNBC anchor daughter who says she will’t “perceive” his devotion to his spouse.
The letter follows Menendez’s trial on bribery costs, throughout which his his legal professionals unsuccessfully tried to put the blame for criminal activity on his second spouse, Nadine Arslanian Menendez.
“In these previous few months, through the darkest days of his personal life, he has navigated his spouse’s breast most cancers prognosis with a kind of grace and forgiveness I actually don’t perceive however admire,” writes Alicia Menendez in her letter to US District Court docket Choose Sidney Stein, who has presided over the senator’s corruption trial and is scheduled to condemn him on Jan. 29.
Menendez, 71, was convicted on 16 corruption and bribery costs in July together with two New Jersey businessmen, who showered him with lots of of hundreds in money and gold bars in alternate for official favors.
Menendez vigorously denied the fees and plans to enchantment. Nadine faces the identical costs, however the trial was delayed following her most cancers prognosis final yr. It’s now scheduled to start subsequent month, in keeping with court docket paperwork. She has pleaded not responsible.
“The proof confirmed Nadine was clearly engaged in conduct with out Senator Menendez’s information,” says the most recent authorized submitting, which incorporates greater than 120 letters from the senator’s family and friends to Stein, pleading for a brief sentence.
In her letter to the choose, Alicia describes her father as “a scrappy child from a small city” who was compelled to forego his childhood to fulfill his Cuban immigrant household’s expectations of turning into the primary in his household to attend school and go to regulation faculty — all whereas coping with the trauma of his personal father’s suicide when he was in his early twenties.
“I’d discover him up late at evening enjoying my brother’s Nintendo system,” Alicia writes. “It’s why like an alien observing a distinct species, he as soon as requested me why different individuals appear so joyful and carefree.
“To be the primary in your loved ones to do and be many issues — a natural-born US citizen, a university graduate, an lawyer, an elected official — is all an ideal privilege. Additionally it is lonelier than most individuals can think about.”
For his half, Menendez’s son, Democratic Rep. Rob Menendez asks Stein to impose a brief sentence so his father can spend time together with his grandchildren — a profit he says he didn’t expertise himself.
“Most of my upbringing was marked by having a dad or mum who traveled forwards and backwards between Washington and New Jersey, away for a lot of of these small moments that make a life,” he writes in his December 26 letter, the most recent dated letter included within the authorized submitting.
“It took me a very long time to start to understand why these choices had been made having skilled first-hand the challenges they brought about.”
In a letter from Menendez’s nephew, an orthopedic surgeon and professor of medication based mostly in Rochester, NY, he describes the trauma of the suicide of the previous senator’s father within the Nineteen Seventies.
“It was a horrible day for my household,” writes Ronald Gonzalez. “My mom’s scream and tears are one thing I’ll always remember.” He provides that it was his “Uncle Bob” who broke the information to his household and took him exterior to play catch to ease the shock.
“He took care of all of us that day,” he mentioned. “He has at all times been a loving household man.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by his older sister, Caridad Gonzalez, who was current in Manhattan federal court docket together with Alicia, for the trial final yr.
“I’m scripting this letter in help of my child brother,” writes Gonzalez in her letter to Stein, including that she speaks and prays with him on a regular basis. “Like our mom, the norm for him was to put others first.”
Menendez’ attorneys additionally observe he has turn into the “main caretaker” for his spouse throughout her most cancers remedies, “making use of drugs and coverings, and even altering her tubes following surgical procedure.”
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