Sen. Robert Menendez indicted

* Not April Fools, this guy is a dumb cluck. Why didn't he just pay for his own vacays?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/menendez-expected-to-be-indicted-as-soon-as-wednesday-sources-say/2015/04/01/623024c6-d86e-11e4-8103-fa84725dbf9d_story.html


Sen. Menendez: ‘I will be vindicated’
Following being indicted on federal corruption charges, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) says he is confident he will be "vindicated." (Reuters)
By Paul Kane and Mike DeBonis April 1 at 4:38 PM

Federal prosecutors unveiled a 14-count indictment Wednesday of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), one of his party’s leading voices on foreign affairs, charging him with using his office to benefit an eye doctor in exchange for many gifts over their decades of friendship.

After a more than two-year investigation, Menendez faces charges related to what prosecutors say were improper efforts by Menendez to help Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based doctor who was also a contributor to Menendez’s campaigns and his longtime friend. Menendez intervened on Melgen’s behalf in a dispute with federal regulators over Medicare charges and in a bid by Melgen to secure a port security contract in the Dominican Republic.

Menendez is only the second U.S. senator to face a federal corruption indictment in the past 20 years. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and suggested that any gifts he received from Melgen were part of a close, personal friendship that dates to the early 1990s.

Federal prosecutors also unveiled charges against Melgen connected to the gifts-for-favors allegations. A grand jury in New Jersey issued eight counts each against Menendez and Melgen for bribery charges and three counts each for honest services fraud, according to a statement from the Justice Department. They also each received one count for conspiracy and one count for violating the Travel Act, and Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements.