NLPC Files Ethics Complaint Against Senator Robert Menendez Seeking His Expulsion

October 20, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

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The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) filed an ethics complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against Senator Robert Menendez. The complaint requests that the Committee investigate his criminal conduct and recommend that the Senate vote to expel him from office.

NLPC’s complaint cites the recent superseding indictment against Senator Menendez, his wife, and three New Jersey businessmen, who “willfully and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other” to have Senator Menendez act as an agent of the Government of Egypt and Egyptian officials. In return for this and other favors to the businessmen, he and his wife received bribes and other illegal gratuities of over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing and closets in his home — along with gold bars, a luxury Mercedes Benz, and personal items.

“Menendez’s excuse for having $480,000 in cash stuffed in his clothes and closet because he was saving it from his paycheck for a rainy day is laughable and insults the intelligence of his constituents, especially when his co-defendant’s fingerprints were found on some of the envelopes,” said Paul Kamenar, NLPC’s counsel who filed the complaint. “We checked his financial disclosure forms and if anything, his Senate bank account increased by a sizable amount,” Kamenar added.

The complaint notes that the Ethics Committee is mandated under its rules to open a preliminary inquiry and cannot nor should not wait until the criminal case is resolved as the Committee previously indicated that it would do. “The Ethics Committee should do its job and not wait until the criminal case is completed,” said Kamenar. “The Ethics Committee should do the Senate a favor and recommend that Senator Menendez be expelled from the Senate as his colleagues are calling on him to resign,’ Kamenar added.

NLPC’s complaint notes that Senator Menendez was previously tried for bribery in 2018 for receiving gifts and luxury travel from his benefactor Dr. Salomon Melgen. NLPC was instrumental in that case of uncovering Senator Menendez’s lobbying efforts to fund a multi-million-dollar port security project in the Dominican Republic in which Dr. Melgen had a financial interest.

“While his case ended in a hung jury, Menendez did not learn his lesson and continued to abuse his office and act corruptly,” said Peter Flaherty, NLPC Chairman. “Senator Menendez is not only a career politician but a career criminal,” Flaherty added.

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Founded in 1991, NLPC promotes ethics in public life and government accountability through research, investigation, education and legal action. Please visit http://www.nlpc.org