He’s a goldmine of hypocrisy.
Disgraced former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez is saying “Trump was right” about political prosecutions within the wake of receiving an 11-year sentence in his corruption case — regardless of a historical past of calling the president a “Russian asset.”
“Gold Bar Bob,” 71, spoke to reporters exterior the federal courthouse in Decrease Manhattan — the place he begged for mercy from President Trump — who he beforehand voted to question twice.
“President Trump was right,” Menendez declared Monday. “This process is political and is corrupted to its core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
The pol — who was discovered responsible of buying and selling favors for overseas governments and businessmen in change for money, gold bars and even a Mercedes-Benz convertible — then shortly ran away from the press gaggle, ignoring reporters who requested him to elucidate how this prosecution was political in nature.
This apparent pandering to the world’s strongest man is a far cry from Menendez’s remedy of Trump throughout his first time period.
Menendez, who bought out his workplace to representatives of the Egyptian authorities, claimed Trump was unethical for casting aspersions on authorized inquiries into alleged connections to the Russian authorities.
“I’m talking about the entirely legitimate question of whether Donald Trump could be compromised by the Russian government,” Menendez — who was himself compromised by a overseas authorities — stated on the Senate ground in 2019, including, “It’s more than a legitimate question.”
The embattled politician went on to criticize Trump for “discrediting” the then-active Mueller probe into the president’s alleged ties to the Russian authorities.
“Meanwhile, the president and his cheerleaders on Fox News continue to discredit the Mueller probe as some kind of partisan witchhunt,” stated Menendez, occurring to tout the convictions stemming from the probe as proof of its non-political motivations.
Now, Menendez is whistling a unique — extra determined — tune within the hopes that Trump has a brief reminiscence.
The previous head of the Senate International Relations Committee was convicted on 16 counts, together with bribery, extortion, appearing as an unlawful overseas agent on behalf of the Egyptian authorities, and obstructing justice.
Throughout a 2022 raid of Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs dwelling, federal investigators discovered 13 gold bars value $150,000 in a bed room protected, practically $500,000 in money all through the house, and cash-filled envelopes stuffed within the pockets of his official Senate jacket.
“Menendez, who swore an oath to represent the United States and the State of New Jersey, instead put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” prosecutors wrote throughout final 12 months’s trial.
Menendez’s spouse Nadine was additionally charged as a part of the identical probe, however her case was delayed as a consequence of a breast most cancers prognosis. Her trial is about for March.
