Disgraced former senator Robert Menendez has letters of help from a convicted drug supplier, a US diplomat Cuba allegedly as soon as tried to recruit as a spy and a former New Jersey mayor indicted on corruption expenses, forward of his sentencing later this month.
Final week, legal professionals for Menendez, 71, filed an almost 400-page authorized doc, which included greater than 120 letters from Menendez’s household, mates and former associates vouching for his good character and lifelong of public service.
The three-term Democrat was convicted on 16 bribery and corruption expenses in July after a jury discovered him responsible of accepting gold bars and a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} from three New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian and Qatari governments. He shall be sentenced in Manhattan federal courtroom on January 29.
Two of the businessmen — Wael Hana and Fred Daibes — have been convicted alongside the senator. His spouse, Nadine Arslanian, has additionally been charged with corruption. She has pleaded not responsible.
Menendez has maintained his innocence, and says he plans to enchantment.
“I respectfully ask that you just mood justice with compassion and provides Senator Menendez a second probability,” writes Manuel Diaz in a Sept. 6 letter to Decide Sidney Stein.
Diaz, who went to highschool and regulation faculty with Menendez, was convicted of trafficking cocaine for Colombian drug lords in 1997. He served two years in federal jail, and stated that when he was launched Menendez helped him get again on his toes. Diaz was additionally a donor to Menendez’s political campaigns, public information present.
“Bob helped me discover employment and gave me a second probability,” writes Diaz, who was additionally the previous senator’s first regulation accomplice.
“He not solely gave me an opportunity at rebuilding my life, he helped me in my journey making amends to society for my transgressions. For 15 years, I labored serving to the poorest of the poor members of our society by means of the homeless help packages in a neighborhood NGO.”
Diaz labored on the North Hudson Neighborhood Motion Company, which gave Menendez greater than $300,000 in hire funds for one in every of his New Jersey houses whereas additionally receiving hundreds of thousands in federal grants with Menendez’s assist whereas he was a Congressman. New Jersey federal prosecutors started a probe of the group in 2006, in response to experiences.
“I’ve identified Senator Robert Menendez for over 25 years,” writes Felix Roque, a former mayor of West New York, NJ, who was indicted for corruption in 2015.
Roque, a medical physician and retired US Military colonel, was indicted and charged with taking practically $250,000 in bribes in trade for referring sufferers to medical imaging facilities in Hackensack led by a legal community between 2007 and 2012. Roque was discovered not responsible a yr later.
“As a medical skilled whose apply is just blocks away from the place Senator Menendez grew up, I’m personally and professionally dedicated to persevering with our shared mission to serve the neighborhood,” writes Roque in his letter to Stein.
“His understanding of the healthcare challenges confronted by our Latino neighborhood and his readiness to handle them have at all times resonated deeply with me, reinforcing our parallel paths in service to others.”
Mari Carmen Aponte, the present US ambassador to Panama, additionally writes in help of Menendez.
“I’ve identified him as a devoted public servant, serving the folks of New Jersey and america,” writes Aponte in her August 20 letter to Stein.
When Aponte was nominated by President Barack Obama to change into ambassador to El Salvador in 2009, Senate Republicans tried to scuttle the appointment over rumors she had as soon as dated a person accused of being a Cuban spy.
When her appointment to El Salvador got here up, Menendez fought exhausting for the Senate to substantiate her nomination, which was finally accepted.
“His help was unconditional and demanding as I used to be baselessly labeled by those that have been politically opposed as a Cuban spy,” writes Aponte in her letter to Stein. “He knew the accusations have been baseless and he, together with the US Division of State and others supported my candidacy. Senator Menendez additionally labored with different Senators, and finally I used to be confirmed.”
Earlier, in 1998, Aponte had bowed out of a nomination to change into ambassador to the Dominican Republic following rumors her boyfriend, Roberto Tamayo, was really a Cuban spy who had allegedly tried to recruit her to work for Cuba.
Newspaper experiences from the time recounted how Cuba-born Tamayo had been accused, with out proof, of being a spy by a defector from Cuba’s Inside Ministry in 1993, who additionally claimed spies from the nation had used Tamayo to try to recruit Aponte.
Nevertheless, in 1999 The Washington Occasions countered these claims, reporting Tamayo had additionally been “involved” with the FBI, and saying he was a “useful supply of knowledge” to US brokers – indicating his allegiance at the moment.
Menendez’s kids, Alicia Menendez, an MSNBC anchor, and her brother, Democratic New Jersey Congressman Robert Menendez additionally submitted letters to Stein.
“A legacy of service 51 years within the making has been diminished to a punch line about gold bars,” writes Alicia. “Those that are advocating for a sentence that will assure my father died in jail search to make an instance of him. They have already got.”
Legal professionals for Menendez argued for a sentence of as much as 27 months, as a substitute of the 12 years really helpful by the probation division, courtroom filings present.
Menendez’s spouse, Nadine, who was charged alongside her husband, is scheduled to face her personal trial subsequent month.
Supply hyperlink
