by Frank Holmes, reporter
A wedding is one of the happiest moments in anyone’s life—the ceremony, the family and friends… the gifts.
A top Democratic senator has gotten caught taking $13,000 in gifts from people in his circle… including someone who may come up before him for a job.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., began his second marriage last year to a woman named Nadine Arslanian. The 67-year-old Democrat says he met his new bride at an IHOP, and they got married outdoors at the Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs in Queens last October 3…and they invited their friends and acquaintances. Those close to the senator wanted to show their appreciation—in cash. Menendez reported to the Senate Ethics Committee that his friends gave the newlyweds $9,000 in cold, hard cash and another $4,000 in gifts.
Some of the names on the guest and gifts list raised ethical questions.
For one, Philip Sellinger gave the couple a substantial gift. Sellinger is said to be on the shortlist to become the next U.S. attorney from the state of New Jersey. Any senator from that state would have a lot of say over who gets the plumb spot…in this case, that would be Menendez. It $1,000 wedding gift wasn’t the lawyer’s first gift to the scandal-ridden New Jersey senator. Sellinger had Joe Biden come to his home to raise money for Menendez nine years ago, when Biden was vice president, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
In other words, Menendez has nearly a decade-long relationship with a Democratic donor, whose future career now rests in Menendez’s hands.
Two other names also make people remember the senator’s past scandals. Donald Scarinci and Raúl Alarcón had steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to Menendez’s accounts—and received sweet favors in return.
A recording taken in 1999 showed Scarinci asking a psychiatrist in New Jersey to do Sen. Menendez a “favor,” and he’d get “protection” for a $1 million contract handed out by the government.
Alarcón, who runs Spanish Broadcasting Systems, has raised a huge amount of money for Menendez, and Menendez owns part of the company. In 2002, he didn’t tell the Senate about the money or his stock when he voted to block two of the company’s rivals from merging, becoming a larger competitor to the company owned by his friend/donor.
The two men together contributed $400,000 to Menendez’s re-election campaign in 2012. Alarcón gave $100,000 to the Senate PAC, while Scarinci solicited $300,000 in donations from a Florida doctor named Solomon Melgen.
They also testified on the senator’s behalf when he was accused of corruption involving Melgen in 2017. Menendez faced 90 years in prison on a long list of charges thanks to his close relationship with Melgen, who was convicted of committing $105 million in Medicare fraud in April 2017.
Dr. Melgen, who is an ophthalmologist, reportedly hooked Menendez up with $1 million in gifts like vacations in Paris and the Caribbean, rides on chartered jets, and large deposits of campaign cash. On at least one of those tips, in 2012 — while Sellinger was holding fundraisers for him — Menendez was accused of visiting teenage prostitutes. His spokesman called the women liars, and he was never charged.
Menendez got his with federal charges including six counts of bribery, three counts of honest services fraud, one count of conspiracy, one count of interstate travel to carry out bribery, and one count of making false statements on his congressional financial disclosures to hide the evidence of his corruption.
The jury couldn’t agree about his guilt, thanks in part to Scarinci and Alarcón, and Menendez skated.
But the Senate Ethics Committee admonished him — really, just a slap on the wrist — for failing to disclose Melgen’s gifts and made him pay some of the money back. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer might say he “believes all women,” but he spent a cool $3 million in 2018 getting the Democrat senator from his neighboring state re-elected to the Senate in 2018.
Menendez is now in his fourth term, his second marriage, and talking with two faces, He’s a perfect example of why the American people shouldn’t trust the Democratic Party to operate fairly, openly, and in the people’s best interests.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”