New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez has been indicted on 14 federal corruption charges, including allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper gifts and campaign contributions as bribes in exchange for using his office to help a close friend and donor.

The 68-page indictment against Menendez was handed down by a federal grand jury in Newark on Wednesday afternoon. It includes eight counts of bribery against Menendez, as well as allegations of honest services fraud, violating the Travel Act and making false statements.


Also indicted was Dr. Salomon Melgen, a longtime Menendez friend and close associate. The two men had been at the center of a lengthy criminal probe by the Justice Department and FBI.

The allegations against Menendez will have repercussions beyond just his own political future. The veteran Democrat plays a key role in formulating U.S. policy on Iran and Cuba, for instance. He’s also an important vote in the confirmation fight over Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s choice to be new attorney general. A spokeswoman for Menendez said late Wednesday that he will vote to confirm Lynch, after aides had indicated earlier in the day he would abstain.

The sweeping nature of the indictment and its great detail — it covers seven years of interactions between Menendez and Melgen, and even features emails between the pair as they allegedly engaged in criminal acts — shows how thoroughly DOJ has prepared its case. Privately, many Senate Democrats and their top aides are convinced Menendez is in serious legal jeopardy, including a potentially long prison sentence if convicted.

Menendez, though, has taken one Democratic headache off the table. He wrote a letter to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saying he is voluntarily stepping down from his post as the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez will keep his seniority on the panel, and he will get his position back if he’s cleared of the charges.

Reid was expected to issue a statement on Menendez on Wednesday night, sources said.

Menendez is prepared to fight the charges, both politically and legally, at least for now. His campaign website now features an “I Stand With Bob” logo. And he’s playing up support from fellow New Jersey Democrats, such as Sen. Cory Booker.

“I’m angry because prosecutors at the Justice Department don’t know the difference between friendship and corruption and have chosen to twist my duties as a senator — and as a friend — into something improper,” Menendez said on Wednesday evening.

“They’re dead wrong, and I’m confident they will be proven so.”

Menendez’s ultimate fate will likely be decided in court. Charges of bribery — which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars — are often difficult for prosecutors to prove. DOJ will have to show a direct link between any favors and a campaign contribution or illegal gift, a tough legal standard to meet.

The seriousness of the bribery allegations makes a plea deal less likely, according to sources close to the New Jersey Democrat. So a court battle seems inevitable. Menendez and his defense team had met privately with DOJ officials recently in an effort to persuade them not go through with the indictment.

According to the indictment, “Menendez accepted close to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to Melgen and to support the visa applications of several of Melgen’s girlfriends.”

Some of the gifts Menendez received from Melgen, the indictment said, included “domestic and international flights on private jets, first class domestic airfare, use of a Caribbean villa, access to an exclusive Dominican resort, stay as a luxury hotel in Paris, expensive meals, golf outings, and tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to a legal defense fund.”

Melgen would often send his jet to pick up Menendez and a guest in New Jersey, fly them to Florida or Melgen’s lavish resort home in the Dominican Republic, and then fly them back home, all at no cost to Menendez. Melgen reportedly bought Menendez a nearly $900 airline ticket to Florida in October 2010, and then paid another $8,000-plus to send Menendez back to Washington on a chartered jet the following day.

In March 2010, Menendez reportedly had Melgen book him in a posh hotel suite in Paris for three nights, at a cost of more than $1,500 per night. Prosecutors even have an email from Menendez to Melgen where the senator allegedly asks Melgen to put the hotel stay on an American Express card.

Menendez “knowingly and willfully” omitted reporting any of these gifts on his financial disclosure report, and he kept the information from his staff, according to the indictment.

Federal prosecutors had recently approached Melgen to determine if he would testify against Menendez, but Melgen refused, according to sources close to the case.

Left: The Casa de Campo Marina in Dominican Republic. Right: Exterior of Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome. | Leading Hotels of the World and Hyatt

Menendez’s perks: private jets, Paris, and the Raindancer Steak House New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez was indicted Wednesday on 14 federal corruption charges, including allegations that he accepted close to $1 million worth of gifts and campaign contributions from Dr. Saloman Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye surgeon. Here are some of the perks Menendez received, as detailed in the Justice Department’s 68-page indictment: — Flights on Melgen’s private jet to Palm Beach, Florida, and the Dominican Republic, with a pit stop in Melgen’s Casa de Campo villa — A first class ticket from New Jersey to Palm Beach for $890.70 — A private charter flight from West Palm Beach, Florida to Washington, D.C., for $8,036.82 — A three-night stay in the executive suite at the five-star Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome for $4,934.10 — A three night stay at the Tortuga Bay Hotel Puntacana Resort Club for $760.40 — Two $20,000 donations for Menendez’s legal defense trust fund — Over $140,000 in donations for “New Jersey Democratic State Committee Victory Federal Account” with the check memo reading “(MFS) Menendez Contribution” and crossed out — A private car service from Hoboken, New Jersey, to New York City for $875.12 — A round of golf at the private Banyan Golf Club in Palm Beach, paid for by Melgen — A meal at Raindancer Steak House in West Palm Beach for $356.80 — Over $750,000 in campaign contributions — $300,000 toward a Democratic New Jersey Senate race where only Menendez was running

In addition to helping Melgen with his billing dispute — and a $500 million contract with the Dominican government — the indictment asserts that “Menendez allegedly took active steps to support the tourist and student visa applications of three of Melgen’s girlfriends, as well as the visa application of the younger sister of one of Melgen’s girlfriends.”

Some of Melgen’s girlfriends were models or actresses from Brazil, the Dominican Republic or Ukraine, according to the indictment.

In his bid to aid Melgen, Menendez allegedly went as far as pressuring “a U.S. cabinet secretary, contacting a U.S. Ambassador, meeting with the heads of executive agencies and other senior executive officials and soliciting other U.S. Senators, all in order to assist Melgen’s personal and pecuniary interests.”

On at least one occasion, Melgen and his family members gave $40,000 to a New Jersey Democratic entity and Menendez’s legal defense fund on the same day as the senator met with a government official on Melgen’s behalf, the indictment states.

Booker issued a strongly worded statement backing his colleague. Other Garden State Democrats backed Menendez as well.

“Senator Menendez has never wavered in his commitment to the people of New Jersey,” Booker said. “He’s been an invaluable resource and a mentor to me since I arrived in the Senate. Our system of justice is designed to be fair and impartial, and it presumes innocence before guilt. I won’t waver in my commitment to stand alongside my senior Senator to serve our great state.”

Menendez, a native New Yorker of Cuban heritage, was first elected to Congress in 1992 and has become one of the most influential Hispanic leaders on Capitol Hill. Appointed to the Senate in January 2006 — he won reelection later that year and again in 2012 — Menendez serves as the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is a key player in debates over Iran and Cuba.

FBI agents and federal prosecutors have spent more than two years looking into the senator’s dealings with Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist and longtime Menendez confidant who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help aid the New Jersey Democrat’s political career.

In 2009 and 2012, Menendez intervened with top officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the agency that oversees the Medicare program — following a CMS ruling that Melgen had overbilled the government by nearly $9 million. Melgen has repaid that money. FBI agents and investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services searched Melgen’s Florida offices twice during the probe.

ExecuJet Aviation Group Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 605 HB-JRE. | Courtesy Sergey Yeliseev via Flickr

Menendez and Reid met personally with then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Aug. 2, 2012, regarding the Melgen billing issue. Reid had flown on Melgen’s plane earlier that summer for a fundraising trip in Boston. Reid was voluntarily interviewed by DOJ last year, but prosecutors do not believe he engaged in any improper or unethical behavior. However, Menendez’s willingness to involve the Senate Democratic leader in the dispute shows how far he was prepared to go to help Melgen.

In addition, Menendez contacted the State and Commerce departments for help in pressuring the Dominican Republic’s government to honor a $500 million contract with a port security company owned by Melgen. The indictment lays out a litany of meetings and contacts Menendez and his staff allegedly took to benefit Melgen on this issue, including trying to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection from donating cargo screening and surveillance equipment to the Dominican Republic, as this “would hurt [Melgen’s] financial interests in the contract he had to provide exclusive cargo screening in Dominican ports.”

Melgen has donated heavily to Menendez’s campaigns, including $700,000 in 2012 to a Democratic super PAC that spent heavily to help the senator secure reelection. Melgen and his family members have also given tens of thousands of dollars to Menendez’s reelection campaign, as well as another $143,000 to New Jersey state and county Democratic party committees, the indictment states.