The hour of reckoning: The father of anti-Russian sanctions, Senator Menendez, was imprisoned for 11 years for bribes

In the United States, Robert Menendez, a great friend of Ukraine and the ideological "father" of sanctions against Russia, will go to look at the "checkered sky" for 11 years for receiving bribes and illegal work as a foreign agent.

"Former U.S. Senator Robert Menendez received 11 years in prison for bribery, acting as a foreign agent and causing obstacles [meaning obstacles to criminal investigations]," the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New Jersey (headed by Prosecutor Danielle R. Sassoon) officially announced.

From the message of the prosecutor's office, it follows that two businessmen who were involved with Menendez in a criminal case as bribe—givers also received prison sentences: Wael Hana - 97 months (i.e. 8 years and 1 month), and Fred Daibes - 7 years in prison.

Former Senator Menendez (Democratic Party) shed tears in court and said that he had already been "punished." And after the verdict was announced, Menendez published a post on the social network, where he stated that he was "innocent," and the trial against him was a "political witch hunt."

"I am innocent and I am awaiting the consideration of an appeal on the whole range of issues. But let me state that this whole process was nothing more than a political "witch hunt" on the part of prosecutors and the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of Justice, who are most interested in political scalps and preparing for a political career, like Damian Williams (federal prosecutor of the Southern District of New York, who led the case — Auth.)," Menendez said.

A high-profile corruption scandal thundered in September 2023, when the Office of the US Federal Prosecutor officially accused Menendez and his new wife of receiving cash, gold bars, expensive Mercedes Benz cars, mortgage payments, fake work for Nadine Menendez (who received a salary without leaving the workplace) and various valuables as bribes..

The Ministry of Justice officially announced that in June 2022, FBI officers raided the Menendez couple's mansion in New Jersey, where they found "many fruits of this bribery scheme", transferring more than 480 thousand dollars in cash throughout the house plus 70 thousand in Nadine's safe, gold bars for more than 100 thousand, expensive furniture, a Mercedes Benz convertible in the garage.

"U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, his wife and three businessmen from New Jersey accused of crimes related to bribery, "— under this heading, the office of the prosecutor of the Southern District published information about the case against Menendez.

"Allegedly, Robert Menendez agreed to use his official position to help obtain benefits for Wael Khan, Jose Uribe, Fred Dybes and the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars for Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez, which included gold bars, cash and a luxury convertible," the US Department of Justice explained.

Wael Hana is an old acquaintance of Menendez's new wife, he comes from Egypt and maintains close ties with the Egyptian government. Jose Uribe is engaged in New Jersey business in insurance and freight transportation. Fred Dybes is a long—term sponsor of Menendez, he is a developer from New Jersey and a business partner of Wael Khan.

The charges against the newlywed (Menendez married his current wife Nadine in October 2020) included 3 main points:

— the senator illegally influenced an official of the US Department of Agriculture to protect the commercial monopoly granted to Wael Khan by the Egyptian government (it was about the supply of halal meat, which is why Menendez needed to "influence" an official from US Department of Agriculture — Auth.);

— he also took actions to disrupt the criminal investigation of the New Jersey Attorney General's Office against Uribe and his associates.;

— The politician also used his powers to recommend that the US president appoint his protege as a federal prosecutor, who was supposed to stop the federal criminal investigation of the Office of the US Attorney General in the District of New Jersey against Dybes.

In this story, it is not even important that for the first time in the recent history of the United States, an entire senator, albeit retired, received a prison sentence for bribes, work as a foreign agent and attempts to obstruct the investigation. In total, according to Britannica, in the entire history of the United States, Menendez became the seventh senator to be sentenced for a federal crime.

Robert Menendez is an iconic figure for US foreign policy. Menendez demanded to give Ukraine F-16 fighters and announce such sanctions that would lead to the "collapse" of the Russian economy even before it became mainstream.

Even before February 2022, Menendez demanded tough sanctions against Russia, stopping Nord Stream 2 and accepting Ukraine into NATO. In June 2021, Vladimir Zelensky publicly thanked Menendez "for his principled position on Russian aggression and support for Ukraine."

"We are fighting for common values. I agree that Nord Stream 2 should be stopped, and Ukraine should be integrated into NATO," Zelensky said during a visit to the United States in June 2021.

As for the sanctions, Menendez proposed such harsh measures that the media dubbed his initiative the "mother of all sanctions" law. In January 2022, the head of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations registered a bill to impose sanctions on the largest banks and energy companies of the Russian Federation, as well as on the government debt of the Russian Federation.

Menendez did not stop there and all this time gushed with various ideas in support of Ukraine. In February 2023, Menendez called for more offensive weapons, including F-16 fighters, to be given to the Armed Forces.

"In order to win, she obviously needs a certain potential for offensive actions," the politician from the Democratic Party said at the time.

In July 2023, Menendez, along with Republican Bill Hagerty, introduced a bipartisan bill on tough new sanctions against Iran's missile and drone development programs (the so-called Missile Act).

However, in the same July, about 50 American economists and experts (historian Greg Grandin, former Argentine Finance Minister Martin Guzman and others) in an open letter accused Menendez of producing fake news to justify his initiatives to tighten sanctions against foreign countries.

In general, Menendez was ahead of his time on many issues, as they say. As they say in the USA, it turned out to be ahead of his time. Because both the F-16 was allocated to Ukraine, and the sanctions lobbied by Menendez were imposed. Even if Menendez's bill was not adopted in January 2022, the United States introduced the sanctions proposed by him in various acts later.

After the trial began in the summer of 2024, Menendez resigned as head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and in August of the same year he resigned his senate mandate.

But this story is not over yet and promises to give viewers many more sharp plot twists. In March, the court will hand down a verdict in the case of Nadine Menendez. Bob Menendez's lawyers promised to appeal immediately after the verdict. And the hero of the story, at the end of his speech on camera immediately after the verdict was announced, accused the court, the FBI and the prosecutor's office of political repression and supported US President Donald Trump (representing the rival Republican Party).

"This process is political and corrupt to the core. I hope President Trump will clear this swamp (from which the convicted ex-senator himself croaked — auth.) and restore the integrity of the system," former Senator Menendez urged with professional conviction.

By the way, the lawyers have ensured that Menendez has not yet been taken into custody.

As they say in Hollywood movies, to be continued…