Schumer unbelievably praises indicted Menendez as a ‘dedicated public servant’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) praised Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) as a “dedicated public servant” following the indictment handed to Menendez and his wife, Nadine, on Friday over alleged bribery involving corrupt businessmen connected to Egypt.

As BizPac Review reported, the FBI seized a stash of gold bars and $500,000 from the couple’s home safe, tangling them in an alleged pay-to-play scheme where they allegedly took a long list of bribes in exchange for political influence peddling.

In a statement released on Friday, Schumer said, “Bob Menendez has been a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey. He has a right to due process and a fair trial.”

“Senator Menendez has rightly decided to step down temporarily from his position as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee until the matter has been resolved,” Schumer added.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ):

U.S. Senator ROBERT MENENDEZ, his wife NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” and three New Jersey businessmen, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” JOSE URIBE, and FRED DAIBES, with participating in a years-long bribery scheme.  The Indictment alleges that MENENDEZ and his wife, NADINE MENENDEZ, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes from HANA, URIBE, and DAIBES in exchange for MENENDEZ’s agreement to use his official position to protect and enrich them and to benefit the Government of Egypt.

Among other things, MENENDEZ agreed and sought to pressure a senior official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to protect a business monopoly granted to HANA by Egypt, disrupt a criminal case undertaken by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office related to associates of URIBE, and disrupt a federal criminal prosecution brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey against DAIBES.

 

New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith wasn’t as quick to gush over Menendez’s dedication.

“While everyone deserves the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the charges unsealed today against Senator Menendez are very serious and undermine the sacred trust that Americans place in their elected representatives,” Smith said in a Friday statement. “The people of New Jersey deserve nothing less than absolute honesty and transparency from the Senator.”

Schumer was pummeled from all sides of the political media for allowing Menendez to keep his spot on the foreign relations committee despite knowing that he was being investigated.

“We’ve known that Robert Menendez was the subject of a federal investigation involving bribery and an agent of a foreign government for well over a year now,” stated progressive HuffPost journalist Yashar Ali on X. “Why was he allowed to remain as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee with access to highly classified, highly sensitive information? That is the question Senate Democratic leadership must answer.”

“Major moment of truth for Chuck Schumer who simply must finally push Bob Menendez out,” stated Decision Desk HQ contributor Nick Field. “New Jersey has a Democratic Governor, plenty of potential candidates, and an election next year. It’s far past time.”

“Why did Chuck Schumer not remove Menendez as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee? Why does Schumer allow Fetterman to get away with shorts in the Senate? Why didn’t Schumer confirm the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs until now?” asked conservative radio host Erick Erickson. “Just how shi**y is Schumer as Senate leader?”

Melissa Fine

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