Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have recommended a sentence of at least 15 years for Robert Menendez, New Jersey’s former senator who was convicted of trading his political clout for bribes.
The U.S. attorney’s office is requesting a similarly long period of incarceration for Mr. Menendez’s two co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. The government asked the judge, Sidney H. Stein, to impose a sentence of at least 10 years for Mr. Hana and nine years for Mr. Daibes.
“The defendants’ crimes amount to an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the legislative branch, to corrupt the nation’s core sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement,” prosecutors wrote in a memo filed late Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
The three men are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 29.
Last week, Mr. Menendez’s lawyers, Avi Weitzman and Adam Fee, described a shorter recommendation made by the court’s probation office — 12 years — as a death sentence and urged Judge Stein to consider a far shorter prison term paired with community service.
Mr. Menendez, 71, has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal the jury verdict.
The prosecutors said the substantial sentences, combined with significant financial penalties would “provide just punishment for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust, and to deter others from ever engaging in similar conduct.”
“Menendez’s conduct may be the most serious for which a U.S. senator has been convicted in the history of the Republic,” the prosecutors told the judge. “Very few senators have even been convicted of any criminal offense, and of those, most of the senators engaging in bribery accepted amounts that are a fraction of what Menendez reaped, even adjusting for inflation.”
Prosecutors wrote that Mr. Menendez, a once-powerful Democrat, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold, a luxury automobile, and other payments in exchange for his promises to affect national security, foreign relations, and the rule of law.”
A lawyer for Mr. Hana, Lawrence S. Lustberg, called the 10-year recommended sentence for his client excessive and said it was “inhumane given the nature and circumstances of the offense and Mr. Hana’s history and characteristics.”
Lawyers for Mr. Menendez and Mr. Daibes had no immediate comment on the government’s recommendations.
The three men were convicted in July after a two-month trial of every crime they were accused of in an 18-count indictment.
Mr. Menendez’s wife, Nadine, is charged with acting as a go-between who shuttled messages and bribes between the three men. Her trial was delayed to allow time for her to be treated for breast cancer, and it is scheduled to start a week after her husband is sentenced.
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