The Democratic former senator Bob Menendez was sentenced on Wednesday to 11 years in prison for bribery. The judge in New York considered proven that Mendez took bribes in his time as a senator and was bribed in exchange for political favors. He did this as chairman of the Senate abroad committee, one of the most powerful positions in Washington.
In that position, Menendez would have been bribed by, among other things, Egypt that with large sums of money, gold bars and expensive cars overturned to make billions of dollars of American development aid to Egypt. Last year the 71-year-old Democrat was found guilty of all charges. Menendez then already quit his seat in the Senate, although he emphasized to appeal.
The federal judge appealed to Mendez in the crowded courtroom, so writes The New York Times. “Somewhere along the way – I don’t know where it was – you lost your way,” he said. “Working for the public interest became working for yourself.” Where Menendez in the court itself still emotionally and in a guilty way responded, his tone for reporters outside the court was different.
“This whole process is nothing but a political witch hunt,” said the former senator. “President Trump is right. This process is political and corrupt to the bone. I hope that President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity of the system, “said Menendez, who seemed to hope for the words of the American president with those words.