Sen. Bob Menendez at Ridgewood REORG
Sen. Bob Menendez’s troubles far from over as he awaits findings of ethics, criminal probes
Tuesday March 19, 2013, 10:09 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
The Record
Growing evidence that prostitutes were paid to lie about trysts with Sen. Bob Menendez will have little impact on other investigations into the senator reportedly under way, ethics experts say.
And the most severe penalties he could face – expulsion from the Senate or a possible prison sentence — come with the highest burden of proof and therefore a lower likelihood of happening based on information what has been made public so far, lawyers and ethics experts say.
Menendez is seeking to have the unknown enemies punished for concocting reports of trysts with Dominican prostitutes.
But he has admitted he accepted free flights to the Dominican Republic on top donor Salomon Melgen’s private plane and waited two years to pay Melgen back. Now both the Senate Ethics Committee and the Justice Department could weigh in on the legality of that delay and for not disclosing a gift from one of the senator’s largest donors.