Former Sen. Bob Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison

Before handing down the prison term, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said that at some point in Menendez’s career, the lawmaker had lost his way. “The public cannot be led to believe that you can get away with bribery and fraud and betraying the voters of New Jersey,” the judge said. He ordered Menendez to report to prison on June 6.

In a packed New York federal courtroom, Menendez gave a 12-minute speech punctuated by tears. “I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions, but I believe in my half-century of public service I have done far more good than bad,” the former lawmaker said.

It was the first case in which a U.S. senator had been convicted of a crime that involved abusing his leadership position on a Senate committee, and the first in which any person had been convicted of serving as a foreign agent while in public office, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Menendez to at least 15 years in prison, arguing that his crimes were a brazen attempt to corrupt U.S. power over foreign relations and law enforcement.

They said that in exchange for bribes including gold bars and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible, Menendez pressured a federal agency not to contest a halal meat monopoly granted by Egypt to a New Jersey businessman. The lawmaker also promised to disrupt criminal proceedings in New Jersey and to aid Cairo in efforts to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid, prosecutors said.

“For all the good he has done in his life, ultimately, he believed that the power he wielded belonged to him,” said prosecutor Paul Monteleoni.

Lawyers for Menendez had said a sentence of no more than eight years was appropriate. The lawmaker had already been punished for his crimes, they said, with his reputation in tatters and his political allies gone. His name had even been stripped from an elementary school in New Jersey, they added.

“Despite his decades of service, he’s now more known as ‘Gold Bar Bob,’” defense attorney Adam Fee told the judge.

They submitted letters from supporters including constituents and family members. “It is clear the good outweighs the bad in the arc of Bob’s life,” Fee said.

Menendez, the child of Cuban immigrants, grew up in Union City, N.J. At age 20 he was elected to a seat on the local school board, and about a decade later became the mayor of Union City. He served in the U.S. Senate from 2006 through last year.

In 2015, Menendez was indicted on a separate slate of corruption charges related to allegedly using his position to help a Florida eye doctor in exchange for gifts and campaign contributions.

After the jury failed to reach a verdict, the judge acquitted Menendez of some charges and prosecutors in 2018 decided not to retry the case.

Around the same time, he began dating businesswomen Nadine Arslanian, who quickly arranged meetings between her new boyfriend and friends who sought his influence. The pair married in 2020.

In 2023, Menendez was indicted alongside his wife and three New Jersey businessmen. At trial, Menendez sought to cast blame on Nadine, saying that she hid her own financial problems and gifts that she received from the senator. His lawyers have said he will appeal the conviction.

One of the businessmen pleaded guilty and testified against Menendez at trial. The judge on Wednesday sentenced Egyptian-American businessman Wael Hana to just over eight years in prison and New Jersey real-estate developer Fred Daibes to seven years.

Nadine Menendez’s trial is slated to begin in March. The judge ruled that she would be tried separately because she had been undergoing breast-cancer treatment during her husband’s trial. 

She has denied wrongdoing. Her lawyers have argued that the exchange of gifts, including gold, between friends and businesspeople is the norm in the Lebanese and Armenian cultures of her family.