Schumer Reacts To Menendez Foreign Bribery Scandal By Praising Him as ‘Dedicated Public Servant’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., right, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., listens at left. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reacted to Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez’s (D-NJ) indictment for his allegedly central role in a bribery scandal involving the Egyptian Government by praising him as a “dedicated public servant.”

“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,” wrote Schumer in a statement. “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.”

That account of Menendez’s character was disputed by prosecutors in the indictment unsealed on Friday morning, which stated that he and his wife, Nadine Menendez “promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty in ways that benefited the Government of Egypt.”

“Among other actions, MENENDEZ provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt,” asserted lawyers working in U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. “MENENDEZ also improperly advised and pressured an official at the United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to [Wael] HANA by Egypt and used in part to fund the bribes being paid to MENENDEZ through NADINE MENENDEZ.”

Schumer was criticized by commentators on the left and right Friday for keeping Menendez in his privileged role on the foreign relations committee in spite of his knowledge of the investigation into him.

“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. Why was he allowed to remain as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee with access to highly classified, highly sensitive information?” asked progressive journalist Yashar Ali on X. “That is the question Senate Democratic leadership must answer.”

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

In 2018, the same year the Egyptian bribery scandal began, another Menendez corruption scandal ended in a mistrial. The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics nevertheless “found that over a six-year period you [Menendez] knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value” from a close friend and donor “without obtaining required Committee approval” and without proper disclosure.