E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez this month wrote a $58,500 check to a company owned by a South Florida eye doctor and political fundraiser to reimburse him for two personal flights to the Dominican Republic that the New Jersey Democrat did not report on his Senate financial disclosure form, his office confirmed to NBC News Wednesday night.
The disclosure came as law enforcement sources confirmed that FBI agents searched the West Palm Beach, Florida, offices of the doctor, Salomon Melgen, Tuesday night as part of an investigation that includes agents from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Melgen is a major Democratic political donor and fundraiser who together with family has contributed more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates, including $33,000 to Menendez.
Menendez’s office confirmed that the senator — who this week became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – wrote the check to Melgen from his personal account after aides reviewed his flight schedule in response to a complaint that a New Jersey Republican official filed with the Senate Ethics Committee last November. The complaint alleged that Menendez violated Senate Ethics rules by “repeatedly flying on a free jet to the Dominican Republic and other locations” and that the jet was provided by Melgen.
“This was sloppy,” Dan O’Brien, Menendez’s chief of staff, told NBC News about Menendez’s failure to pay for the two 2010 flights at the time. “I’m chalking it up to an oversight.” Asked whether the senator has been contacted by the Senate Ethics Committee about the matter, O’Brien responded: “We can assume the Senate Ethics Committee is looking at the allegation. ”
O’Brien provided new details about Menendez’s relationship with the Florida doctor amid a swirl of media reports about the FBI probe. He said Menendez and the doctor have been longtime personal friends and that the senator has visited Melgen at his home in the Dominican Republican “about twice a year,” including attending Melgen’s daughter’s wedding. He said Menendez has generally flown commercial for those flights and paid for them out of his own pocket.
He confirmed that Melgen has also been an active fundraiser for Menendez, holding events for him at his home in South Florida as well as at a home he owns in Caso de Campo, a Dominican resort.
All told, the senator took three flights aboard Melgen’s jet in 2010 — one of which that May involved a trip to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republican for political fundraisers, O’Brien said. One of those fundraisers was at Melgen’s home in the Dominican Republic, O’Brien said. The May 2010 flight for fundraisers on the two islands was paid for at the time by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Menendez then chaired.
But after the ethics complaint was filed Nov. 3, his aides conducted what they described as an “exhaustive review of Menendez’s schedule” and found that the senator had taken two additional flights aboard Melgen’s corporate jet. One, from Aug. 6 to Aug. 9, 2010, was from south Florida to the Dominican Republic and back to south Florida. Another was from Sept. 3 to Sept. 6, 2010, was from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to the Dominican Republican and back to New Jersey. In at least one of those flights, Menendez brought along guests, O’Brien said.
O’Brien said that after the review — spurred by the ethics complaint — Menendez wrote the $58,500 to Melgen’s company from his personal account. Under Senate ethics rules, senators are allowed to accept gifts from personal friends, but any valued at more than $250 must be publicly reported and approved by the Senate Ethics Committee.
In a statement earlier Wednesday, Menendez’s office said that: “Dr. Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of Senator Menendez for many years. Senator Menendez has traveled on Dr. Melgen’s plane on three occasions, all of which have been paid for and reported appropriately.”
That statement made no reference to Menendez paying for the trips in January, two months after the ethics committee complaint was filed. Asked about the omission, a spokeswoman for the senator said: “There was never any intention to be misleading.”
The spokeswoman said the senator was not aware of any time requirement for reimbursing for personal trips. She also said Menendez, by reimbursing for the flights, was not claiming the trips aboard Dr. Melgen’s plane was a personal gift. Although personal gifts above $250 need ethics committee approval, Menendez was not claiming the flights as a gift and therefore does not need to seek approval of them from the committee, the spokeswoman said.
Leave a Comment:
No story here. He is a Democrat and therefore is not accountable for his actions. It was a gross mistake for MSNBC to even report on this. Move along. Nothing to see here. Now if a Republican does this, we'll have a LOT more to say, but since it is a Democrat let's just all simmer down now.
Democrats are addicted to OPM...
Menedez also claims he did not know about the illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender that worked for his office either which should have been reported on when the story initially broke before November, 2012 elections but than again MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC knew Menedez would have lost his seat to a Republican! One of the prostitutes who claims to have had sexual relations with Menedez was only 16 years old and there is an international law that makes this illegal. I just wonder if the liberal celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith who all speak out about human trafficking and underage prostitution will come out against this slime ball!
He should be hounded out of office by the media.The media didn't stop for a day until all the other weird crooked republicans left the seat.
Democrat leader AFTER THE FACT and only after he is CAUGHT, writes a check. TO LIBERALS- All is good.
Where is Caligula when you need him?
More Justice:
No, prostitution is not legal in some state(s). It is legal in only ONE state (Nevada), and there it is legal in only TWO counties!
If this Senator was a man of personal ethics, he would have paid the bill before he got caught.
I suspect every Senator and every House Member has done the same thing and others are right, we just keep re-electing them.
Sure makes me wonder about the American electorate.
He should do the righteous thing, resign, which he should of done when his staffer was caught.
Oversight, my azz. Chalk it up to he got caught and that is the only reason he is paying up. IRS should also be looking into this!!
Another scum bag politician making laws for all of us to live with. This is our Gov't at work folks -
that is who people voted for - and we will keep living with these scum bags until we vote them out.
One of his aides is a child molester and illegal alien that was NOT arrested when the information became know (prior to the election) and ICE and Homeland Security were told by the Whitehouse NOT to take action until after the election! This guy is obviously a piece of chit that needs to go (along with the chit in the Whitehouse).
Howdy, I don't think it was an aide but a campaign worker. Here's what I posted,
If I remember correctly, isn't this the same demorcatic New Jersey Senator who had an illegal immigrant who was a convicted sex offender working on his most recent re-election campaign and had the ICE hold off arresting him until after the election??
Why's a D (N.J) , getting that much money from a Floridian????
Friends ok, but 58K worth of friends????
Our Floridian elected officials should feel slighted. Wrong committee???
Being as he is a democrat the money coming from his personal account should be another question.
must be nice to be able to lie and cheat and when caught just write a check for the amount of the fraud. No fine, no time. Just a honest mistake when they do it but when John Doe public makes an honest mistake his ass is grass. He would have made a good treasury secretary, replace a crook with a crook.
"Hey, Doc, what was it that I owe you for that flight to the Dominican? $58,000? Was that one way or round trip? Round trip, great.....worth every penny. Here let me give you a check. But, I think I'll take American down next time and buy a condo with the difference".
I realize most Americans are so unaware of the political landscape that they can't name one of their two senators, much less their representative in the House......... but is this really the best that we deserve?
Both parties do their best to scare us and distract us with issues such as gay rights, gun control, terrorists, abortion, illegal immigrants, Hollywood liberals, talk show whackos, etc. But, the greatest danger is fast becoming the contempt the two parties show towards the American people. "We'll do want we want, when we want to, and what are you going to do about it? Vote with the Tea Party? Vote for the socialists?" A democracy with no real choice will not stay a democracy for very long.
What MSNBC didn't report was that he went on those excursions to solicit underage prostitutes.
Another roach gets caught in the day light.....watch him scurry.
If it had been a Republican all hell would be breaking loose! The bastard should be headed to jail along with half of the Obama administration. SOB is attempting to buy his way out and if Holder and the DOJ helps him he will get away with it and the media will protect his ass. Just look at the jobs and lives destroyed in the FBI with there sex scandal in South America and they covered up Obama's Staff involvement. This guy is hiring children, do you want him representing your daughter?
hmmmmmmmmmmm....pretty sure this would have been a non-story had the CHEATER not been caught....
is this what society has come to? athletes on PED's; reality tv; republican follies.....
I'd move out of the country, but we're the best in the world (and if you have travelled globally, you know what I mean)....
It is time that the FBI Start cleaning out the boars next in our sorry excuse of a government. This clown has violated his ethics, his cheating on his wife and so on so on. He needs to expelled and arrested and tried. Paying for unreported trips is a day late and dollar short. IT IS TIME TO CLEAN OUT THE SEWER THAT IS CALLED CONGRESS AND SENATE AND THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well at least they mentioned his party affiliation this time.
But something tells me this will be the only time this story will appear on MSN.
Anytime a Democrat is involved in a scandal, the story usually only appears once on MSN.
On the other hand stories about Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comment were featured at least two or three times on MSN.
This is because people seem to care about what a politician says rather than what they do. Say something and you will be crucified by the media. Do something and be a democrat and the media and everyone else will forget within the week.
Why does Todd Akin practically become a meme for what he said, but no one ever talks about the openly communist czars Obama has, those who support forced abortion, etc.?
$58500 for two flights. Wow. This is for something other than two flights. What a cover up story.
Dude. What were you thinking? On the plus side, at least the senate is not completely corrupt. Rules are rules. Seems like this guy may be hiding a little something.
The author of this article did mention Republican. In two of the three mentions of the DR, it was written as Dominican "Republican". Old habits die hard, I guess.