Supreme Court rejects U.S. senator's bid to escape corruption case
Source: Reuters
| Mon Mar 20, 2017 | 9:53am EDT
By Andrew Chung | WASHINGTON
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for prosecutors to pursue bribery charges against Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, rejecting his bid to have the case involving donations from a Florida ophthalmologist thrown out.
The justices left in place a lower court's refusal to dismiss a corruption indictment against Mendendez, who had argued that a provision in the U.S. Constitution shielded him from prosecution.
In 2015, a grand jury indicted Menendez on charges of bribery, fraud and with making false statements in his annual financial disclosure forms by failing to list gifts he received from a wealthy friend, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.
Prosecutors allege Menendez accepted campaign donations and gifts, including a stay at a Caribbean villa and private jet flights, from Melgen in exchange for interceding in various matters on his friend's behalf, including an $8.9 million Medicare billing dispute. Menendez and Melgen have pleaded not guilty to the charges they faced in the 22-count indictment.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-menendez-idUSKBN16R1GO
bucolic_frolic
(43,027 posts)FAKE News like FAUX News does
Label him a Republican!
Scruffy1
(3,252 posts)This is where the party leadership , if there is any, needs to step it up. Just being dumb enough to be associated with someone like Melgen has bad optics, no pun intended. The whole ophthalmology business has become a vast scam to rip off medicare. We don't really need Democrats who go off riding around in private jets of the affluent and then claim they have the privilege of accepting bribes for lobbying. It's been my experience when a rich man gives you something he expects to own you.I think it's strange that Rand Paul got away with his phony ophthalmologist credentials, but then he is the Republicans problem, not ours.