Justice Department Drops Senator Menendez Bribery Case

• January 31 2018
• David Voreacos, Neil Weinberg

U.S. prosecutors told a judge they want to drop a federal corruption case against U.S. Senator Robert Menendez rather than retry him after a divided jury failed to reach a verdict last year.

U.S. prosecutors told a judge they want to drop a federal corruption case against U.S. Senator Robert Menendez rather than retry him after a divided jury failed to reach a verdict last year. 

The decision lifts a legal cloud over the New Jersey Democrat as he faces re-election in November and represents a surrender by prosecutors who pursued a criminal case against him for five years.

The Justice Department said it decided to abandon the case after U.S. District Judge William Walls ruled last week that he was not guilty on four criminal counts but left in place other bribery and fraud charges.

“Given the impact of the court’s Jan. 24 order on the charges and the evidence admissible in a retrial, the United States has determined that it will not retry the defendants on the remaining charges,” Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman said in a written statement.

Menendez and his co-defendant, Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor accused of bribing him in exchange for political favors, have maintained their innocence since the investigation began in late 2012.