Bob Menendez says money found in police search was for personal use – live | US politics
Menendez says money found in search was for personal use
One of the most striking aspects of Robert Menendez’s indictment was photos showing bundles of cash that investigators found in his home during a search last year.
Prosecutors say the senator and his wife accepted bribes from agents of the Egyptian government, and investigators found a total of $480,000 stuffed in a safe, clothing and closets throughout his home.
In his press conference, the senator addressed the money. “For 30 years, I have withdrawn 1000s of dollars in cash from my personal savings accounts, which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” said Menendez, whose parents are from the island.
“Now this may seem old fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings accounts based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years. I look forward to addressing other issues in trial.”
Key events
Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom will take part in a televised debate on 30 November.
The 90-minute debate will be moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity and air on Hannity’s 9pm prime-time program.
In a statement issued through the network, Hannity said he is “looking forward to providing viewers with an informative debate about the everyday issues and governing philosophies that impact the lives of every American.”
DeSantis is also scheduled to also participate in the second GOP primary debate on Wednesday. Donald Trump, the clear frontrunner in the Republican race, will not attend.
Martin Pengelly
Observers reacted to Donald Trump’s threat to NBC, MSNBC and Comcast with a mixture of familiarity and alarm.
In a statement, Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, said:
To abuse presidential power and violate the constitutional rights of reporters would be an outrageous attack on our democracy and the rule of law. Presidents must always defend Americans’ freedoms – never trample on them for selfish, small and dangerous political purposes.
Elsewhere, Paul Farhi, media reporter for the Washington Post, pointed to Trump’s symbiotic relationship with outlets he professes to hate, given that only last week Trump was “the featured interview guest last week on Meet the Press, the signature Sunday morning news program on … NBC”.
Others noted that on Monday night, the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a key witness for the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on Congress, which Trump incited, was due to be interviewed on MSNBC.
Sounding a louder alarm, Occupy Democrats, a progressive advocacy group, said Trump had gone “full fascist” with an “unhinged Sunday-night rant”.
Martin Pengelly
Donald Trump said Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason’” and promised to do so should he be re-elected president next year.
In response, one progressive group said the former US president and current overwhelming frontrunner in the Republican 2024 presidential nomination race had “gone full fascist”.
The Biden White House said Trump threatened “an outrageous attack on our democracy and the rule of law”.
The US media was “almost all dishonest and corrupt”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, “but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC News, and in particular MSNBC … should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason’.”
Listing familiar complaints about coverage of his presidency – during which he regularly threatened NBC, MSNBC and Comcast – Trump added:
I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I win the presidency of the United States, they and others of the lamestream media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events.
Trump also used familiar terms of abuse for the press: “the enemy of the people” and “the fake news media”.
The day so far
In a defiant speech to reporters, New Jersey’s Democratic senator Robert Menendez rejected charges brought against him by federal prosecutors, who claimed he illegally used his position to help the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes. He made clear he would not step down, but remained vague about whether he’d run for re-election, and said the cash investigators turned up at his house was merely for emergencies.
Here’s what else has been happening today:
-
Joe Biden cheered a tentative agreement to end the Hollywood writers’ strike, ahead of his visit planned for tomorrow to a United Auto Workers picket line in Michigan.
-
Another House Democrat, Pennsylvania’s Summer Lee, says Menendez should resign.
-
Donald Trump will skip Wednesday’s debate of Republican presidential candidates to make his own visit to striking autoworkers in Michigan.
Speaking of the 2024 election, here’s the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt with a look at the political situation in New York, a state that could prove crucial to Democrats’ efforts to retake the House next year:
In Anthony D’Esposito’s New York congressional district, Democrats are licking their lips.
The Republican won an unexpected election to the House of Representatives in 2022, styling himself as a moderate in a historically Democratic district that Joe Biden had easily won by 14 points two years earlier.
But last week D’Esposito, along with other self-styled moderates, gave his tacit approval to the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, an inquiry championed by the far-right members of the Republican party.
The inquiry, into Hunter Biden’s business affairs and unsubstantiated accusations of corruption by the president, has become a symbol of the vengeful, extremist politics of far-right Republican figures like Marjorie Taylor-Greene. Sensing a chance, Democrats in D’Esposito’s Long Island district, just east of New York City, are now planning to tie him to his more rabid colleagues and win back the seat.
“We’re certainly going to make it an issue and it’s a liability for him here,” said Jay Jacobs, the chair of the local Democratic party in Nassau county, which makes up much of the fourth congressional district, which D’Esposito represents.
One thing to note about Robert Menendez’s statement to the press today: he did not explicitly say he was running for re-election.
Rather, he said he would be exonerated and “still will be New Jersey’s senior senator”. That’s as good a signal as any that he doesn’t plan to resign, as several fellow Democratic lawmakers have called for him to do, but he didn’t specify what his future would be beyond next year, when his current term in office expires.
John Fetterman was the first senator to call for Robert Menendez to resign, and appears to be rolling his eyes at his colleague’s assertion that the cash at his house was merely for emergencies:
Here’s the moment from today’s press conference in which Robert Menendez addressed the bundles of cash investigators found in his house:
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on law enforcement finding thousands of dollars in cash in his closets:
“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account .. for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.” pic.twitter.com/1au7KwipeO
— The Recount (@therecount) September 25, 2023
The senator did not, however, comment on the gold bars investigators say they turned up, and which they allege were proceeds from his illicit assistance to Egypt.
As Menendez was speaking, another Democratic lawmaker called on him to step down.
“Senator Menendez must resign. Corruption is corruption. Bribery is bribery,” freshman House representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania said in a statement.
She likened the allegations against the senator to concerns surrounding conservative supreme court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and their ties to parties with interests in the court’s decisions:
We can’t talk about holding Thomas and Alito accountable for selling out our freedoms for luxury vacations and private jet flights if we fail to hold a Senator accountable for selling out his chairmanship to a dictator gifting gold bars and cash to keep military aid flowing to Egypt as its government violates human rights. Menendez is of course owed due process, but the American people are owed trust in our institutions. Our fight against right-wing fascism depends on that trust.
Menendez says money found in search was for personal use
One of the most striking aspects of Robert Menendez’s indictment was photos showing bundles of cash that investigators found in his home during a search last year.
Prosecutors say the senator and his wife accepted bribes from agents of the Egyptian government, and investigators found a total of $480,000 stuffed in a safe, clothing and closets throughout his home.
In his press conference, the senator addressed the money. “For 30 years, I have withdrawn 1000s of dollars in cash from my personal savings accounts, which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” said Menendez, whose parents are from the island.
“Now this may seem old fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings accounts based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years. I look forward to addressing other issues in trial.”
Menendez also indirectly hit out at those who have called for him to step down from the Senate following his indictment, accusing them of a rush to judgment.
“The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system”, the senator said.
He continued:
Those who rushed to judgment, you have done so based on a limited set of facts framed by the prosecution to be a salacious as possible. Remember, prosecutors get it wrong.
Menendez says he expects to be exonerated ‘when all the facts are presented’
In his press conference, Democratic senator Robert Menendez said he believes he is innocent of the charges brought against him by federal prosecutors for allegedly using his position to aid the government of Egypt, and will stay in the Senate.
“Everything I’ve accomplished, I’ve worked for despite the naysayers and everyone who has underestimated me. I recognize this will be the biggest fight yet, but as I have stated throughout this whole process, I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
