Gee, look who’s suddenly speaking out about Democrats’ weaponization of the federal government! I’m sure this former member of the Senate from New Jersey wants to come clean and reform his party from within. An august former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wouldn’t just make this argument out of personal interests … and to ingratiate himself with the one man who can keep him and his wife out of federal prison, right? Right?
In fairness, this isn’t Bob Menendez’ first public posting on X/Twitter accusing the Department of Justice of misconduct and political targeting. It does appear that this is the first time that Gold Bar Bob has used the term “weaponization,” and it comes as Donald Trump has begun to uncork pardons for those he believes have been its victims.
Hmmm:
People talk about the Trump DOJ, but it was the Democrats who started weaponizing the Justice Dept. When, as the Chairman of the SFRC, I didn’t go along with Obama’s Iran deal, I was indicted, and the next day after being stripped of my position, Obama announced the Iran deal.
— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) May 30, 2025
So when Democrats talk about weaponizing the Justice Dept, they should look into their own past actions. Obama was willing to use the Justice Department to pursue and preserve the legacy issue he felt would earn him the Nobel Prize he had received.
— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) May 30, 2025
Needless to say, this skips over a few points. Menendez was indicted by Obama’s Department of Justice in 2015, but it was part of an investigation that targeted one of Menendez’ major political donors, ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen. That probe began in January 2013, kicked off by an FBI raid on Melgen’s office on suspicions of Medicare/Medicaid afraid. A grand jury begun reviewing evidence two months later, and two years before his indictment by the DoJ, about Menendez’ potential involvement in protecting Melgen. In fact, Menendez had admitted to intervening on Melgen’s behalf at the time the grand jury began its review in March 2013:
Menendez has intervened in matters affecting the financial interests of Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, seeking to apply pressure on the Dominican government to honor a contract with Melgen’s port-security company, documents and interviews show. Also, Menendez’s office has acknowledged he interceded with federal health-care officials after they said that Melgen had overbilled the U.S. government for care at his clinic.
Melgen has provided Menendez with plane flights and hospitality at his Dominican vacation home, say people acquainted with their relationship.
Last month, people with knowledge of the case said FBI agents were conducting interviews in the Dominican Republic and the United States concerning allegations against Menendez, including the role he played in advocating for the enforcement of the port-security contract. A grand jury probe, which involves a prosecutor pursuing allegations with an eye toward possible indictment, typically represents a legal escalation, though it does not always lead to a prosecution.
Menendez did not speak out against the Iran deal, known also as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Acrion (JCPOA), until April 2015 — two years later. The indictment process had started before Obama even had a deal brewing. It seems unlikely that Obama cared much at all about Menendez’ position on the deal or on the SFRC, especially since it looked like Menendez would exit the Senate for Club Fed in the near future either way. However, Menendez beat the rap and kept his seat in the Senate, even after finally being “severely admonished” for his corruption by the Senate Ethics Committee in 2018.
The Committee has found that over a six-year period you knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from Dr. Melgen without obtaining required Committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law. Additionally, while accepting these gifts, you used your position as a Member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgen’s personal and business interests. The Committee has determined that this conduct violated Senate Rules, federal law, and applicable standards of conduct. Accordingly, the Committee issues you this Public Letter of Admonition and also directs you to repay the fair market value of all impermissible gifts not already repaid.
Menendez finally went to prison on an entirely different case, one that had nothing to do with Obama’s Iran deal, and everything to do with his own continued corruption. He went back to the same activities that nearly put him in prison before, this time taking his wife with him to the hoosegow:
The longtime New Jersey lawmaker was convicted of all charges last year in Manhattan federal court, forcing his resignation after nearly 18 years in the Senate and a half-century in politics. A jury found that Menendez took bribes from three New Jersey businessmen who sought his help quashing criminal investigations and securing lucrative deals with officials from Egypt and Qatar. He is appealing. …
Wael “Will” Hana, the businessman who connected Menendez with Egyptian intelligence officials, and real estate developer Fred Daibes, one of Hana’s business associates, were convicted alongside Menendez. Daibes on Wednesday morning was sentenced to seven years and two months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $1.75 million, with the judge noting that he is worth $134 million. Hana was sentenced later to eight years and one month in prison and fined $1.25 million.
After Menendez started meeting and sharing information with Egyptian officials, Hana received an exclusive contract to certify beef exports to Egypt. He became an “overnight multimillionaire” despite having no background in such certifications, and he showered Menendez with cash, one-ounce gold bars and a sham job for his wife, prosecutors said.
Daibes was under indictment in a federal bank fraud case when he began to provide stacks of cash and one-kilogram gold bars, each worth around $60,000, to get Menendez’s help defusing that investigation. The senator also agreed to support a congressional resolution praising Qatar for its efforts to evacuate refugees from Afghanistan in 2021, just as Daibes was seeking an investment from a Qatari sheikh whose fund ultimately approved a $95 million stake in his luxury real estate project, according to the trial evidence.
A third businessman, insurance executive Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty last year and testified that he bribed the senator with a Mercedes-Benz convertible for his wife, Nadine Menendez, who faces trial this year. Uribe told jurors that he wanted to “stop and kill” a pair of insurance fraud investigations by New Jersey authorities into his business associates — and that Menendez tried to intercede in both cases, raising concerns directly with the state attorney general in a phone call and then a meeting.
So … yeah. Weaponization. That’s the obvious explanation, right?
This looks like something more than glomming onto a handy slogan. Other public figures have managed to get pardons out of Trump through personal appeals and pledges to join his fights. Rod Blagojevich is probably the most notable of the public-corruption figures to benefit from getting Trump’s attention, but some of the more recent pardons have that same quality. Menendez probably hopes that offering to join Trump’s crusade against the “deep state,” especially as a Democrat willing to walk the apostasy trail, will get him a favorable review.
Will it? I’d like to doubt that, but at this point, Menendez doesn’t have any realistic options except toadying. Let’s hope that Trump is wise enough to refuse to take the bait.
