This is the best summary I could come up with:
Prosecutors allege the bribes included gold, cash, home mortgage payments, compensation for a “low-or-no-show job” and a luxury vehicle.
Senate Democratic Caucus rules will force Menendez to step aside as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but he can still serve on the panel.
Beginning in April, his wife sold gold bars worth as much as $400,000, according to the senator’s most recent financial disclosure form.
The conspiracy counts also charge his wife Nadine, and three people described as New Jersey associates and businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.
Yet Hana met Menendez in his office along with others, including an Egyptian intelligence official, in May 2019, asking for help fending off the US agency’s opposition.
Two days later, Menendez allegedly called an Agriculture Department official, asking them to stop opposing Hana’s venture.
The original article contains 765 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
He did it wrong, you just have to call them “lobbyists,” and have them donate to your campaign or your PAC, (without coordination, nudge-nudge,) and it’s all legal.
That’s not how you get the actual personal spending money though. You set up yourself with a cush retirement job lobbying in between when you hold office, speaking fee agreements, jobs for friends and all sorts of other people who now feel indebted to you, business opportunities that wouldn’t be available to others. All those can be legal if done right, under current laws.
IMO Citizens United is what brought US Politics to where we are today. Legalized money laundering and influence purchasing are apt descriptors. The sheer flood of money since CU catapulted us into the era of massive ad and social media spending.
The SCOTUS corruption is seriously disturbing though. There seems to be zero appetite from the Justice Dept., Executive or Legislative branches to rock the boat. The media keeps bringing the stories and all the public gets are tepid remarks and half-hearted investigation announcements.
Lmao gold bars…? That’s like some cartoon villain shit.
I’m independent and vote D because that’s the only rational choice. Fuck the republican traitor filth. And fuck this guy too, lock him the fuck up if he’s guilty.
See that, republican traitors? No one should be above the law. Fuck all of you.
They’re gonna use this to say Democrats think they’re above the law because Fox News, Breitbart and the rest don’t run all of us saying to bring Menendez to justice. Hell, even if they did run it Republicans wouldn’t change their minds.
He literally Googled how much a kilogram of gold is worth
For those who are interested, one kilogram of gold is currently worth about $60,000
