Former Senate Democrat Convicted of Bribery Reportedly Seeking Pardon From Trump
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who was convicted on federal corruption charges last year, is reportedly seeking a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump, according to NBC News.
On Friday, NBC reported that associates of Menendez have put out feelers to the White House to see if President Joe Biden would be willing to pardon the ex-senator in the waning days of the administration. However, their efforts appear to be bearing no fruit.
The report added that the former senator believes he has a better chance of clemency from Trump than Biden. Menendez is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 29, and prosecutors have asked for a sentence of at least 15 years in prison.
“Left with the impression that he won’t receive a pardon from Biden, Menendez has now shifted his focus onto President-elect Donald Trump, three people familiar with the discussions said,” the report stated.
In July, a federal jury convicted Menendez on all 18 counts he faced, including bribery, extortion, wire fraud, and acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt. An FBI raid of Menendez’s New Jersey home in 2022 uncovered gold bars, nearly half a billion dollars in cash, and a Mercedes-Benz allegedly given as part of the scheme to his wife Nadine Menendez, whose own corruption trial is set to begin on Tuesday.
“Longtime Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti, who serves in the White House as counselor to the president, was among those approached about a pardon for Menendez, two people familiar with the discussions said,” NBC reported. “Ricchetti was noncommittal, they said, but the takeaway for Menendez was that Biden would be unlikely to do it.”
The trial wasn’t Menendez’s first rodeo. He was federally indicted for bribery and making false statements in 2015, but the case ended in a mistrial before the Department of Justices dropped the charges.
The NBC report comes a day after it was reported that New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat under federal indictment, visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
