XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns
XPost: sac.politics, nj.politics

Of all the corruption-adjacent gifts Senator Robert Menendez allegedly
accepted in recent years, the most memorable has to be the gold bars,
worth over $100,000, that FBI agents found in his home.

So far, the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, who is also implicated
in allegations of bribery, have not stated publicly why the bars were
there — or why Robert was searching online for “how much is one kilo of
gold worth.” But in a filing late on Monday, prosecutors said that
Menendez and his wife have both explained where they got the gold. One
staffer interviewed said the senator had informed them that “the gold had
come from Nadine Menendez’s deceased mother.” Mrs. Menendez allegedly made
the same claim when speaking to a jeweler.

But according to prosecutors, this was “a false cover story” to hide the
item’s provenance: New Jersey businessmen allegedly looking to bribe
Menendez in exchange for political favors. In December, NBC New York
reported that four of the gold bars found in Menendez’s home had serial
numbers matching those stolen from a New Jersey real-estate developer
named Fred Daibes in 2013. Daibes has pleaded not guilty to charges that
he bribed Menendez in exchange for the senator leaning on a U.S. attorney
who was overseeing an unrelated bank-fraud case against Daibes.

In a statement in January, Menendez claimed that he will provide “a full explanation of what is the truth” regarding the gold bars at his trial,
which is scheduled to begin May 6.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/menendezs-wife-claims-sketchy- gold-bars-were-her-moms.html

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