House Democrat Laughs At Bob Menendez’s Explanation For Why He Had Half a Million Dollars Stashed Around His House: ‘I Don’t Buy It’

Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) laughed at Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) explanation as to why federal agents found nearly $500,000 when they executed a search warrant at his home last year.

Menendez was indicted last week on federal bribery charges along with his wife and three associates. The three-count indictment alleges the senator accepted cash and gifts to advance the interests of Egypt as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and to protect and enrich the interests of said associates.

The senator has so far remained defiant, refusing growing calls for him to step down. Three Democratic senators and several House Democrats have called on him to resign – including Jackson, who appeared on Monday’s OutFront on CNN.

“He is entitled to a presumption of innocence in a court of law,” Jackson said. “But he’s not entitled to public trust. And he’s lost it. Anybody who reads that indictment with any sense of objectivity is gonna come away with the exact same opinion, that, of course, this person has lost public trust.”

Host Erin Burnett then read Menendez’s explanation for why he had so much cash in his house as opposed to a financial institution. Agents also found gold bars at his residence, though Menendez did not address those nor the Mercedes he was allegedly given as a gift.

“Today he explained away the shocking piles of cash specifically and gold bars by saying that having them on hand is an old-fashioned safety mechanism following the persecution of his family in Cuba,” Burnett noted. “Now, I want to say, Congressman, doing some very quick back-of-the-envelope math with his Senate salary of about $174,000 a year, he’d be keeping about five to six years of his after-tax Senate salary around – just in cash, forget the gold bars, just in his cash. You can get five to six percent in a money market right now. Do you buy that?”

Jackson laughed.

“No,” he said. “I don’t buy it for two other reasons. First, speaking of envelopes, they found the DNA of the person who allegedly bribed him on the envelope. And he didn’t disclose having that cash. All senators have to disclose their income during their relevant period, he didn’t disclose that cash, and of course, he didn’t address the gold bars. He didn’t address the Mercedes. He only addressed the cash. So, no, I don’t think that’s a very good explanation, nor was it a good explanation when he said this is all the normal work of a congressional office. As a member of Congress, I can assure people none of this is normal.”

This is the second time Menendez has been indicted. In 2017, his corruption case ended in a mistrial.

Watch above via CNN.