Second Menendez indictment comes as no surprise

Bob Menendez, the senior senator from New Jersey, has been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of public corruption. Again.

Having managed to escape a guilty verdict in 2017 via a hung jury for his highly questionable dealings with a Florida eye doctor, the senator and his newish wife Nadine now stand accused of corruptly acting on behalf of businessmen Fred Daibes, Wael Hana and José Uribe.

All politicians offer services to constituents, but the 39-page indictment by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams alleges that the couple received a Mercedes-Benz convertible, mortgage payments, and hundreds of thousands in cash and gold bars for helping the trio of businessmen with issues from ongoing state and federal criminal investigations to maintaining a monopoly on certifying meat as halal for export to Egypt.

Having apparently heard that the Supreme Court made the standards for proving public corruption absurdly narrow to the point of requiring almost explicit quid pro quo, Bob and Nadine helpfully and exhaustively documented the specific instances in which the senator used his official position to help the businessmen in exchange for their largesse, which he never disclosed.

In a fiery denial, the senator insisted that he was being persecuted by shadowy political actors who apparently decided to go all-in in bringing down a single middling lawmaker. The rebuttal pointedly did not include any explanation of how Menendez came to be in possession of the many pounds of gold bars — and why he was querying the internet for “how much is one kilo of gold worth,” coincidentally one day after being picked up at the airport by Daibes’ driver upon returning from Egypt.

He didn’t mention why stacks of $100 bills were stuffed in his closet or anything about the litany of text messages in which Nadine in particular seems to gleefully confess to the couple’s shady dealings while demanding she get paid.

If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Menendez wanted to make things easier for this jury than the one who was unable to agree on his guilt when he was tried on corruption charges after his 2015 indictment. In that case, the senator had deployed the resources of his office on behalf of the doctor, who rewarded him with flights and visits to a Dominican resort, among other things. Menendez managed to somehow dodge that bullet, yet rather than rethinking his approach, he’s now accused of even more brazenly selling his influence.

It’s an ignominious new chapter for a man who cut his teeth taking a stand against public corruption at great personal risk in the Union City of the 1980s. It’s also a broader indictment of the systems that are supposed to enforce some accountability here. Everyone’s known for years that there was something about him.

Those inhabiting the highest echelons of power have gotten too comfortable with the idea that they can get chummy with high rollers who will lavish them with the lifestyle they feel they deserve, and when questions are raised, they can just wave them away as politically motivated. 

Fellow Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy demands that Menendez resign. We doubt he will and he may even run for reelection next year. He may even win; it is New Jersey.