The Democratic former US senator Bob Menendez was sentenced in federal court on Wednesday to 11 years in prison over his 2024 conviction for taking bribes, including receiving gold bars in exchange for doing favors for Egypt and for New Jersey businessmen.
Last year he also became the first former senator to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent.
The US district judge Sidney Stein handed down the custodial sentence at a hearing in court in New York City.
Menendez was an influential and long-serving lawmaker and high-profile figure in the Democratic party.
He spent almost 19 years representing New Jersey in Washington DC. He was found guilty last July on all counts after being indicted on 16 felony charges, including bribery and fraud. Menendez reluctantly resigned from the Senate last August, proclaiming his innocence.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office had urged Stein to sentence Menendez to 15 years in prison. They say he shepherded military aid to Egypt, provided assistance to Qatar and interfered in local prosecutions of allied businessmen in exchange for bribes including gold, cash and a Mercedes-Benz.
“Menendez, who swore an oath to represent the United States and the state of New Jersey, instead put his high office up for sale in exchange for this hoard of bribes,” prosecutors wrote in a 9 January court filing.
Among the bribes he was accused of taking were 13 gold bars found in his New Jersey home during a 2022 raid by the FBI.
Menendez, 71, had pleaded not guilty and has vowed to appeal.
His lawyers said the former chair of the Senate’s foreign relations committee should spend no more than a little over two years behind bars, citing his age, decades of public service, charitable works, devotion to family, and financial and professional ruin.
Earlier on Wednesday, Stein sentenced two convicted co-defendants. The New Jersey businessman Fred Daibes received seven years in prison and Wael Hana just over eight years.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, was to be tried with her husband on corruption charges, but her trial was postponed after her lawyers said she needed treatment for breast cancer. Her trial is scheduled for 18 March, and she has pleaded not guilty.
Speaking to reporters outside of court, Menendez appeared to appeal to Donald Trump to help him out.
“Welcome to the southern district of New York, the wild west of political prosecutions,” Menendez said. “President Trump is right: this process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool, and restores the integrity to the system.”
Reuters contributed reporting
