Sen. Robert Menendez was not improperly investigated and indicted for accepting a “long-running stream of bribes,” federal prosecutors said Monday.

And in a court filing rebuffing the New Jersey Democrat’s bid to overturn charges against him, prosecutors revisit uncharged allegations of underage prostitution that kicked off the federal probe.

The filing, curiously, does not explicitly say the underage prostitution investigation came up empty. In fact, the probe is described as having turned up “corroborating evidence.”

The prostitution claims, first reported by The Daily Caller in 2012, suggested Menendez and his co-defendant on bribery charges, eye doctor and businessman Salomon Melgen, traveled to the Dominican Republic to have sex with prostitutes.

“While those allegations have not resulted in any criminal charges, there can be no question that the Government has an obligation to take such allegations regarding potential harm to minors very seriously, regardless of who the alleged perpetrators may be,” the filing says.

“Presented with specific, corroborated allegations that defendants Menendez and Melgen had sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, the Government responsibly and dutifully investigated those serious allegations,” the filing says. “The indictment here, of course, charges only corruption and does not include any allegations of soliciting underage prostitution.”

Prosecutors twice say there was “corroborating evidence” to support the initial sex crime allegations, for which Menendez and Melgen face no charges. In the first instance, they write:



"The defendants present their case as exceptional because the allegations of underage prostitution are 'such easily disprovable allegations about something that would hardly be a federal crime even had it been true.' Id. As an initial matter, it is most certainly a federal crime to leave the country for the purpose of engaging in a commercial sex act with a minor, and the defendants’ suggestion to the contrary is unsettling. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1952, 1591(a)(1), & 2421. Furthermore, the defendants’ dismissive treatment of these allegations is troubling. Allegations of human trafficking and underage prostitution must be taken seriously and cannot be dismissed merely because the alleged perpetrator is a United States Senator. Given the nature and seriousness of the allegations, in addition to the corroborating evidence, it would have been irresponsible not to investigate."



Then, recounting the initial stages of the investigation and apparently corroborating evidence, prosecutors write:

"As would be done in the normal course, the Government took responsible steps to investigate these serious criminal allegations, which were not so 'easily disprovable,' as the defendants suggest. Some eyewitnesses described a party attended by defendant Melgen in Casa de Campo—where defendant Melgen has a home and where defendant Menendez often visited—involving prostitutes. See Ex. 2 at 2; Ex. 3 at 1-2.. Furthermore, defendant Melgen has flown numerous young women from the United States and from other countries on his private jet to the Dominican Republic. Many of these young women receive substantial financial support from defendant Melgen. For example, defendant Melgen flew two young women—whom he met while they were performing at a South Florida 'Gentlemen’s' Club, see Ex. 4 at 1-2—on his private jet to his villa in Casa de Campo the day after paying one young woman $1,000 and the other young woman $2,000. See Ex. 5. Indeed, one of defendant Melgen’s pilots described 'young girls' who 'look[ed] like escorts' traveling at various times on defendant Melgen’s private jet. Ex. 6 at 9:7-16. Some young women who received substantial sums of money from defendant Melgen were in the same place as defendant Menendez at the same time. Moreover, when the allegations were first reported, defendant Menendez defended himself with public statements that are easily disprovable. Specifically, he repeated several times that he had only flown on defendant Melgen’s private jet on three occasions. That representation is demonstrably false. Confronted with corroborating evidence of such serious crimes, it would have been an inexcusable abdication of responsibility not to investigate these allegations."



Menendez denies all criminal allegations. He says the alleged corruption is actually gifting among friends and claimed the sex allegations – for which he has not been charged – may have been cooked up by the Cuban government.

The Justice Department would not comment beyond the filing.

"The motions [to dismiss that were filed earlier by Menendez] showed how the DOJ tried to make up for weak allegations about public corruption by soliciting allegations about sex," says Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright, who is herself named in the document. "The oppositions the DOJ filed [on Monday] continue that refrain, now with new salacious and baseless allegations, again having nothing to do with the actual charges in the case. While talk of prostitution may make for good headlines, it has absolutely nothing to do with this case."