Former colleagues of disgraced ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., spoke about how the former senator betrayed his country and his own legacy, published in a report by The New York Times on Wednesday.
A judge sentenced Menendez to 11 years in prison on Wednesday, concluding his trial for a “long-running bribery and foreign influence scheme of rare gravity.”
The sentence is the harshest ever handed down to a U.S. senator. Breaking down in tears, Menendez pleaded with U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein for mercy in a New York City courtroom.
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Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., arrives at federal court in New York before being sentenced, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah) (AP)
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave a bleak retrospective of how the former N.J. senator will be remembered.
“At a time when our expectations continue to get lower and lower for people in public life, the thing Bob Menendez is going to be remembered for is lowering those standards even further,” Christie told The Times, adding, “That’s a hell of an epitaph.”
Christie went on to describe how Menendez broke the sacred trust between the public and their elected officials, ignoring an important trade-off required of politicians.
“When you’re in public office, you make a trade: You get influence in return for not getting money,” said Christie. “If you believe that you can have influence and money as a public official at the same time, you’re probably going to go to jail.”
The former N.J. governor believed that “Bob Menendez just concluded he could have both,” adding, “And you can’t.”
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie laid out what he thinks ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., will be remembered after being sentenced to 11 years in prison for a bribery and influence-peddling scheme. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Former Senator Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., who faced an ethics scandal of his own while in office, had a similar message on Menendez’s betrayal of his country.
“I don’t think these can be judged as only part of a pattern of inappropriate conduct or even corruption,” Torricelli said. “There was an element here of betrayal to the country and an action contrary to national interests that was almost unique in the history of the United States Congress.”
Although there was no shortage of criticism from former colleagues of Menendez, some still loyal to him penned letters to Judge Stein, pleading for leniency in his sentencing. Henry J. Amoroso, a prominent lawyer and friend of Menendez, recalled a time when the former senator showed him compassion during a dinner celebrating the lawyer’s 60th birthday. Amoroso had been struggling with a debilitating shoulder injury at the time of the dinner, which made cutting his steak a taxing challenge.
“During dinner, he obviously noticed I was struggling to cut my steak and without any hesitation and without bringing attention to himself, he gently leaned over with his own knife, grabbing my fork and cutting my steak for me while remaining completely engaged in conversation,” Amoroso wrote.
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MSNBC host Alicia Menendez penned a letter to Judge Stein asking for leniency in her father’s sentencing. ((Left: Bonnie Cash/Pool via REUTERS, Right:Screenshot/MSNBC))
Menendez’s only daughter, MSNBC anchor Alicia Menendez, also wrote a letter to Judge Stein. While the letter did ask the judge to show mercy on her father, as he had already lost his place in the Senate, and even had his name removed from a local elementary school, she did address the irreparable damage already done by the senator to his own legacy, as noted by The Times.
“A legacy of service 51 years in the making has been reduced to a punchline about gold bars,” she wrote.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
