Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Tuesday insisted he’s innocent as more than a dozen of his Senate Democratic colleagues called on him to resign over last week’s indictment on bribery charges.
Asked by a reporter on Tuesday at the Senate over why he isn’t resigning, Menendez had a quick and simple retort.
“Because I’m innocent,” Menendez said in response to a question from NBC News correspondent Ryan Nobles.
“What’s wrong with you guys,” Menendez added.
In keeping with Senate Democrats’ protocol, Menendez stepped down from his powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He admits to the cash filled envelopes but claims that banks weren’t trusted in his home country (Cuba IIRC) so he keeps plenty of money in cash.
While I don’t doubt that there are countries like this, I don’t buy this excuse. It also doesn’t explain the gold bars oflr the Mercedes that the Egyptian government allegedly made payments on for him.
Is he innocent? In the eyes of the law, yes. Until he’s convicted he’s not legally guilty. That doesn’t mean that this scandal can’t hurt him politically until conviction though. For better or worse, the public makes judgements based on what they hear/see and this is pretty damning.
His home country? He was born and raised in New York.
Here’s the article I read where he makes the excuse: https://news.yahoo.com/won-t-believe-menendez-defense-173624765.html
The article points out that he was born in New York City, not Cuba.
So even his excuse is as flimsy as it could possibly be.
It also doesn’t explain how his indicted co-conspirators fingerprints and DNA (ew!) ended up on the money and envelopes or how the serial number on the gold bar shows it was also owned by the co-conspirator.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4221725-menendez-indictment-480k-cash-seized-emergencies/