Jury Convicts NJ Senator Bob Menendez of Taking Bribes from Egypt & Qatar

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman.

In New York, a federal jury Tuesday convicted New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of corruption on all 16 counts he faced. He was found guilty of bribery in aiding Egypt and Qatar, as well as wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent. This is U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

DAMIAN WILLIAMS: This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption, hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz. This wasn’t politics as usual; this was politics for profit. And now that a jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end.

AMY GOODMAN: Bob Menendez faces up to 222 years in prison. Democrats are now calling on Senator Menendez to resign.

Joining us here in Milwaukee at the Republican convention is Robert Hennelly, an award-winning investigative reporter who’s been covering Menendez for decades, is here doing a two-hour nightly broadcast for the Pacifica Radio Network.

Bob, you’ve been covering Menendez for years. He already —

BOB HENNELLY: Since I was a child.

AMY GOODMAN: — was tried. And he was acquitted in that case years ago.

BOB HENNELLY: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: But now we have this case.

BOB HENNELLY: Well, so, what we see here is that this is really a condemnation of the political culture of New Jersey that’s corrupt. And so, this does leave an opening for the Republicans here, because it was facilitated — that’s why Senator Menendez is holding on even now, even though he has been convicted. He has no shame. You can’t have shame and be in politics in New Jersey. And so, this same lawlessness of Donald Trump is extended to Bob Menendez.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what he was convicted of.

BOB HENNELLY: So, it was an influence peddling thing where he ended up with gold bullion bars, that were hard to explain, hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lovely new Mercedes-Benz for his significant other, and all kinds of business dealings with two local fixers, and then a global component where the U.S. government was concerned that he was actually giving information that was sensitive to Egyptian intelligence, just trying to promote business.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about Egypt and Qatar. What were the two things he was doing in halal business?

BOB HENNELLY: Right, right. And so, what he was doing was clearing the field to make it possible for an American businessman to dominate it. So, once again, with multinational rogue capitalism practiced at the highest levels internationally, it hurts consumers and unsettles just working people. And he was really the beneficiary of it. It’s a feudal system. It’s a two-party bilking system. It’s been going on for years, and it still continues.

AMY GOODMAN: So, he was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he was involved with these acts.

BOB HENNELLY: Well, and, of course, we know his Cuban policy. So, he has promoted this kind of terrorism that we look the other way on. So, he has been someone — he came up — what’s ironic is that he came up as a reformer. He came up as a young Turk that was going to change things. He actually put himself at risk to go against his mentor, the mayor of Union City, who ended up being convicted of corruption. So it is endemic. I think it has to do — when capitalism controls politics, this is a logical consequence.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what happens now? I mean, he was forced out of his Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, but a number of Democrats, led by Fetterman, Senator Fetterman from Pennsylvania, are calling on him to resign. If not, what happens?

BOB HENNELLY: He’s impervious. So, there could be a Senate sanction. He could get expelled. It’s very unusual. There’s only been seven sitting senators that have gone through this kind of situation. He’s the first — and we are proud of him — he is the first sitting senator to be convicted as a foreign agent. I assume other people have done it, but he finally got caught. And that’s an achievement.

AMY GOODMAN: And if, of course, he was forced out, then the governor, Murphy, would choose —

BOB HENNELLY: Yes. And we know that that’s —

AMY GOODMAN: — a new senator.

BOB HENNELLY: Governor Murphy had hoped to have his wife run, and that little bit of feudalism and House of Lords thing collapsed in a very embarrassing way. I guess she’s back to doing her charity work. And Andy Kim now, a young reformer, a Democrat — people probably know him — he was one of the congressmen who actually took it upon himself to clean up the insurrection — a very compelling AP photo where we see him helping the folks clean up the Capitol. And so, he seems to be positioned to win. But it is giving a little — I had a chance to run into Rudy Giuliani. And so, of course, he was talking about, “We’ve got to fight corruption at the highest level.” Totally more magical thinking from those people.