Former Senator Bob Menendez, age 71, was sentenced to eleven years in a federal prison in the gold bar bribery and corruption case. It’s like a death sentence, given his age.
Menendez had pleaded with U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein for mercy, twice breaking down in tears.
“I have lost everything,” the New Jersey Democrat said after recounting actions he said he had taken to help others while in the Senate. He has since resigned.
“For a man who spent his entire life in public service, every day I am awake is a punishment,” said Menendez. He was chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he took the payoffs.
The judge said the evidence was overwhelming.
“Somewhere along the way, you became, I’m sorry to say, a corrupt politician,” Stein told him before handing down his sentence. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, he also entered a forfeiture order for all of Menendez’s ill-gotten gains in the case, which totaled $992,188.10.
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