By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-07 00:27:35 | Updated at 2025-01-08 05:21:49
1 day ago
Disgraced former senator Robert Menendez has letters of support from a convicted drug dealer, a US diplomat Cuba allegedly once tried to recruit as a spy and a former New Jersey mayor indicted on corruption charges, ahead of his sentencing later this month.
Last week, lawyers for Menendez, 71, filed a nearly 400-page legal document, which included more than 120 letters from Menendez’s family, friends and former associates vouching for his good character and lifetime of public service.
The three-term Democrat was convicted on 16 bribery and corruption charges in July after a jury found him guilty of accepting gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars from three New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian and Qatari governments. He will be sentenced in Manhattan federal court on January 29.
Two of the businessmen — Wael Hana and Fred Daibes — were convicted alongside the senator. His wife, Nadine Arslanian, has also been charged with corruption. She has pleaded not guilty.
Menendez has maintained his innocence, and says he plans to appeal.
“I respectfully ask that you temper justice with compassion and give Senator Menendez a second chance,” writes Manuel Diaz in a Sept. 6 letter to Judge Sidney Stein.
Diaz, who went to high school and law school with Menendez, was convicted of trafficking cocaine for Colombian drug lords in 1997. He served two years in federal prison, and said that when he was released Menendez helped him get back on his feet. Diaz was also a donor to Menendez’s political campaigns, public records show.
“Bob helped me find employment and gave me a second chance,” writes Diaz, who was also the former senator’s first law partner.
“He not only gave me a chance at rebuilding my life, he helped me in my journey making amends to society for my transgressions. For 15 years, I worked helping the poorest of the poor members of our society through the homeless assistance programs in a local NGO.”
Diaz worked at the North Hudson Community Action Corporation, which gave Menendez more than $300,000 in rent payments for one of his New Jersey homes while also receiving millions in federal grants with Menendez’s help while he was a Congressman. New Jersey federal prosecutors began a probe of the group in 2006, according to reports.
“I have known Senator Robert Menendez for over 25 years,” writes Felix Roque, a former mayor of West New York, NJ, who was indicted for corruption in 2015.
Roque, a medical doctor and retired US Army colonel, was indicted and charged with taking nearly $250,000 in bribes in exchange for referring patients to medical imaging centers in Hackensack led by a criminal network between 2007 and 2012. Roque was found not guilty a year later.
“As a medical professional whose practice is only blocks away from where Senator Menendez grew up, I am personally and professionally committed to continuing our shared mission to serve the community,” writes Roque in his letter to Stein.
“His understanding of the healthcare challenges faced by our Latino community and his readiness to address them have always resonated deeply with me, reinforcing our parallel paths in service to others.”
Mari Carmen Aponte, the current US ambassador to Panama, also writes in support of Menendez.
“I have known him as a faithful public servant, serving the people of New Jersey and the United States,” writes Aponte in her August 20 letter to Stein.
When Aponte was nominated by President Barack Obama to become ambassador to El Salvador in 2009, Senate Republicans tried to scuttle the appointment over rumors she had once dated a man accused of being a Cuban spy.
When her appointment to El Salvador came up, Menendez fought hard for the Senate to confirm her nomination, which was eventually accepted.
“His support was unconditional and critical as I was baselessly labeled by those who were politically opposed as a Cuban spy,” writes Aponte in her letter to Stein. “He knew the accusations were baseless and he, along with the US Department of State and others supported my candidacy. Senator Menendez also worked with other Senators, and eventually I was confirmed.”
Earlier, in 1998, Aponte had bowed out of a nomination to become ambassador to the Dominican Republic following rumors her boyfriend, Roberto Tamayo, was actually a Cuban spy who had allegedly tried to recruit her to work for Cuba.
Newspaper reports from the time recounted how Cuba-born Tamayo had been accused, without evidence, of being a spy by a defector from Cuba’s Interior Ministry in 1993, who also claimed spies from the country had used Tamayo to try and recruit Aponte.
However, in 1999 The Washington Times countered those claims, reporting Tamayo had also been “in contact” with the FBI, and saying he was a “valuable source of information” to US agents – indicating his allegiance at that time.
Menendez’s children, Alicia Menendez, an MSNBC anchor, and her brother, Democratic New Jersey Congressman Robert Menendez also submitted letters to Stein.
“A legacy of service 51 years in the making has been reduced to a punch line about gold bars,” writes Alicia. “Those who are advocating for a sentence that would guarantee my father died in prison seek to make an example of him. They already have.”
Lawyers for Menendez argued for a sentence of up to 27 months, instead of the 12 years recommended by the probation department, court filings show.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine, who was charged alongside her husband, is scheduled to face her own trial next month.
