P. Coonan
2025-01-04 03:25:32 UTC
With less than a month to go before Robert Menendez, New Jerseys
disgraced former U.S. senator, is scheduled to be sentenced for
corruption, his lawyers submitted an emotion-laden appeal for leniency
based on what they depicted as Mr. Menendezs hardscrabble upbringing,
life of service and devotion to family.
In a legal brief filed minutes before midnight on Thursday, the lawyers,
Avi Weitzman and Adam Fee, laid out Mr. Menendezs rise to political
prominence in Hudson County, N.J., and a catalog of good deeds done for
constituents during three decades in Congress.
As they did during Mr. Menendezs two-month bribery trial in Manhattan,
Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Fee suggested that their clients greatest failing
was being led astray by a conniving wife.
Nadine Menendez, the former senators wife, was charged with her husband
with conspiring to trade his political influence for bribes of cash, gold
bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. Her trial is expected to start next
month.
The evidence showed that Senator Menendez was unaware of activities that
Nadine was undertaking, including the receipt and sale of gold bars by
Nadine, and cash she stored in her locked closet and her safe deposit
box, the lawyers wrote in their filing.
And in a letter of support also filed on Thursday, Mr. Menendezs
daughter, Alicia Menendez, a high-profile anchor on the cable news network
MSNBC, hinted at the sacrifices her father continued to make for his wife,
who was being treated for breast cancer.
During the darkest days of his own life, he has navigated his wifes
breast cancer diagnosis with a type of grace and forgiveness I honestly do
not understand but admire, Ms. Menendez wrote.
Her letter is among more than 120 filed on behalf of Mr. Menendez, part of
an attempt to justify a prison term far shorter than the 12 years
recommended by the courts probation department. The U.S. attorneys
office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Mr.
Menendez, is expected to disclose the governments sentencing
recommendation in the coming weeks.
A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment on the filing,
as did Ms. Menendezs lawyer, Barry Coburn.
Mr. Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana,
were convicted in July of being at the center of a vast international
bribery conspiracy. A onetime powerful Democrat who led the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Mr. Menendez was found guilty of each of the 16
counts he faced, including acting as an agent of a foreign government.
Mr. Menendez, 71, has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal the
jury verdict.
But the federal judge handling the case, Sidney H. Stein, has denied Mr.
Menendezs request to delay his Jan. 29 sentencing until after his wifes
trial.
In Thursdays filing, the former senators lawyers argued that the
probation departments recommendation of a 12-year prison term was
draconian likely a life and death sentence for someone of Bobs age and
condition.
Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Fee suggested that the guidelines instead merited a
sentence of no more than 27 months and even that, they wrote, was too
long.
They urged Judge Stein to consider a period of imprisonment of less than
27 months paired with at least two years rigorous community service.
He is certain never to commit future offenses, the lawyers wrote about
Mr. Menendez. And his current state stripped of office and living under
a permanent shadow of disgrace and mockery are more than sufficient to
reflect the seriousness of the offenses and to promote respect for the
law.
The letters of support came from former constituents, friends, family
members and a small handful of elected community leaders in New Jersey.
Mr. Menendezs son, Representative Robert Menendez, said that he hoped his
father would have an opportunity to be a presence in his grandchildrens
lives, offsetting the decades of precious moments that he missed away
from his own young family while serving in Congress.
Hector C. Lora, the mayor of Passaic, N.J., described Mr. Menendez as a
man who remembers where he came from and who carries a deep-rooted sense
of responsibility toward those less fortunate.
Danny OBrien, a former chief of staff for Mr. Menendez, commended the
former senators willingness to meet with students and to encourage them
to consider public service as a way of fighting for change and giving
back.
I never observed any of the things like those charged in this matter,
wrote Mr. OBrien, who worked closely with Mr. Menendez in Washington for
at least six years. What Bob Menendez did show me was an abiding love of
country and humanity.
The former senators lawyers argued that his exceedingly public fall from
grace was in part punishment enough, and that it had rendered him a
national punchline and left him in financial ruin.
Of the countless minor indignities he now faces, his name has been
stripped from an elementary school in New Jersey, they wrote. His once
broad circle of friends and political allies have largely disappeared.
The filing also included a statistical analysis of other recent sentences
for public corruption and concluded that there was no reason whatsoever
to presume that the guidelines provide useful guidance in bribery cases.
The filing cited the sentences of a half-dozen convicted fallen former New
York political luminaries like Dean Skelos, a former leader of the State
Legislature.
A review of these cases, Mr. Menendezs lawyers wrote, suggests that a
sentence of just half of what has been proposed would be one of the
harshest ever imposed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/nyregion/robert-menendez-bribery-
sentencing.html
disgraced former U.S. senator, is scheduled to be sentenced for
corruption, his lawyers submitted an emotion-laden appeal for leniency
based on what they depicted as Mr. Menendezs hardscrabble upbringing,
life of service and devotion to family.
In a legal brief filed minutes before midnight on Thursday, the lawyers,
Avi Weitzman and Adam Fee, laid out Mr. Menendezs rise to political
prominence in Hudson County, N.J., and a catalog of good deeds done for
constituents during three decades in Congress.
As they did during Mr. Menendezs two-month bribery trial in Manhattan,
Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Fee suggested that their clients greatest failing
was being led astray by a conniving wife.
Nadine Menendez, the former senators wife, was charged with her husband
with conspiring to trade his political influence for bribes of cash, gold
bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. Her trial is expected to start next
month.
The evidence showed that Senator Menendez was unaware of activities that
Nadine was undertaking, including the receipt and sale of gold bars by
Nadine, and cash she stored in her locked closet and her safe deposit
box, the lawyers wrote in their filing.
And in a letter of support also filed on Thursday, Mr. Menendezs
daughter, Alicia Menendez, a high-profile anchor on the cable news network
MSNBC, hinted at the sacrifices her father continued to make for his wife,
who was being treated for breast cancer.
During the darkest days of his own life, he has navigated his wifes
breast cancer diagnosis with a type of grace and forgiveness I honestly do
not understand but admire, Ms. Menendez wrote.
Her letter is among more than 120 filed on behalf of Mr. Menendez, part of
an attempt to justify a prison term far shorter than the 12 years
recommended by the courts probation department. The U.S. attorneys
office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Mr.
Menendez, is expected to disclose the governments sentencing
recommendation in the coming weeks.
A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment on the filing,
as did Ms. Menendezs lawyer, Barry Coburn.
Mr. Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana,
were convicted in July of being at the center of a vast international
bribery conspiracy. A onetime powerful Democrat who led the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Mr. Menendez was found guilty of each of the 16
counts he faced, including acting as an agent of a foreign government.
Mr. Menendez, 71, has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal the
jury verdict.
But the federal judge handling the case, Sidney H. Stein, has denied Mr.
Menendezs request to delay his Jan. 29 sentencing until after his wifes
trial.
In Thursdays filing, the former senators lawyers argued that the
probation departments recommendation of a 12-year prison term was
draconian likely a life and death sentence for someone of Bobs age and
condition.
Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Fee suggested that the guidelines instead merited a
sentence of no more than 27 months and even that, they wrote, was too
long.
They urged Judge Stein to consider a period of imprisonment of less than
27 months paired with at least two years rigorous community service.
He is certain never to commit future offenses, the lawyers wrote about
Mr. Menendez. And his current state stripped of office and living under
a permanent shadow of disgrace and mockery are more than sufficient to
reflect the seriousness of the offenses and to promote respect for the
law.
The letters of support came from former constituents, friends, family
members and a small handful of elected community leaders in New Jersey.
Mr. Menendezs son, Representative Robert Menendez, said that he hoped his
father would have an opportunity to be a presence in his grandchildrens
lives, offsetting the decades of precious moments that he missed away
from his own young family while serving in Congress.
Hector C. Lora, the mayor of Passaic, N.J., described Mr. Menendez as a
man who remembers where he came from and who carries a deep-rooted sense
of responsibility toward those less fortunate.
Danny OBrien, a former chief of staff for Mr. Menendez, commended the
former senators willingness to meet with students and to encourage them
to consider public service as a way of fighting for change and giving
back.
I never observed any of the things like those charged in this matter,
wrote Mr. OBrien, who worked closely with Mr. Menendez in Washington for
at least six years. What Bob Menendez did show me was an abiding love of
country and humanity.
The former senators lawyers argued that his exceedingly public fall from
grace was in part punishment enough, and that it had rendered him a
national punchline and left him in financial ruin.
Of the countless minor indignities he now faces, his name has been
stripped from an elementary school in New Jersey, they wrote. His once
broad circle of friends and political allies have largely disappeared.
The filing also included a statistical analysis of other recent sentences
for public corruption and concluded that there was no reason whatsoever
to presume that the guidelines provide useful guidance in bribery cases.
The filing cited the sentences of a half-dozen convicted fallen former New
York political luminaries like Dean Skelos, a former leader of the State
Legislature.
A review of these cases, Mr. Menendezs lawyers wrote, suggests that a
sentence of just half of what has been proposed would be one of the
harshest ever imposed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/nyregion/robert-menendez-bribery-
sentencing.html