Call it the “gold standard” of bribery.
From , , and article at NBC News:
Four gold bars connected to the FBI search of Sen. Bob Menendez’s home have direct links to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing Menendez, the state’s senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor’s records from a 2013 robbery case show.
The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police that he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013, and he asked police to recover the gold bars stolen from him. Daibes reported that $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars were stolen, Edgewater, New Jersey, police records show. Police later caught four people with the stolen goods.
To get his property back, Daibes signed “property release forms” certifying the gold bars belonged to him, the records show.
“Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes told investigators in a 2013 transcript made by prosecutors and police who recovered — and returned to Daibes — the stolen valuables. “They’re all stamped…you’ll never see two stamped the same way.”
In the bribery indictment against Menendez and Daibes this year, prosecutors included photos of some of the alleged bribes found in the Clifton, New Jersey, home of Menendez and his wife, Nadine, including gold bars.
The FBI said the quid pro quo between Menendez and Daibes included efforts by Menendez to influence the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office, which in 2018 was investigating Daibes in relation to a separate crime of bank fraud.
Daibes and Menendez, along with other co-defendants Nadine Menendez, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe, all deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty.
Menendez has denied taking payoffs from Daibes even though prosecutors allege testing shows Daibes’ fingerprints and DNA are on some of the tens of thousands of dollars in cash found in Menendez’s home.
Does this conclusively prove Robert Menendez was taking bribes in return for his senatorial favors? Nope, not conclusively – any more than the guy accused of stealing $347 from a woman’s wallet, who matches the description of the thief and is found minutes later with exactly $347 stashed in his inside jacket pocket, proves he took the money. But it’ s pretty hard not to draw conclusions.
Menendez, if he stays in office and fights this out, will be a major issue for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. He will be characterized as a living, breathing example of Democrat corruption that is going unpunished. Frankly, given the political poison he now is, I don’t see how Democrats can allow Menendez to stay in office.
So get ready to move over, George Santos. It’s an excellent bet you’re about to have some company on the sidelines.
