On Wednesday, former US Senator Bob Menendez received an 11-year jail term for accepting bribes, including gold bars, in return for favors for businessmen from Egypt and New Jersey.
After Menendez was found guilty in July, US District Judge Sidney Stein handed down the sentence during a hearing in federal court in Manhattan.
In order to attend his wife Nadine Menendez’s corruption trial beginning in March, the judge ordered Menendez to start his prison sentence on June 6.
“You were strong and accomplished. “At the sentencing, you represented the pinnacle of our political system,” Stein said. “I don’t know what led you to commit these crimes.”
Menendez, a once-dominant Democrat who served as the Senate’s foreign relations chair and represented New Jersey for 18-1/2 years.
