New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, will face corruption charges (brought by the Justice Department) for allegedly using his Senate office to “push the business interests of a Democratic donor and friend in exchange for gifts.” CNN,
The government’s case centers on Menendez’s relationship with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who the senator has called a friend and political supporter. Melgen and his family have been generous donors to the senator and various committees the senator is associated with.
Investigators have focused in part on plane trips Menendez took in 2010 to the Dominican Republic as a guest of Melgen. In 2013, after word of the federal investigation became public, Menendez paid back Melgen $58,000 for the 2010 plane trips calling his failure to properly disclose the flights an “oversight.”
