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The wife of a leading Democratic senator is one focus of an ongoing corruption probe into him, according to a report on Saturday.
The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors are investigating whether Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) wife received services or gives from people who were seeking political and other favors from him.
Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have issued subpoenas to associates of the senator’s wife, Nadine Arslanian, whom he married in 2020, the outlet reported. They are looking for any information related to Menendez and Arslanian, sources told the WSJ, though the outlet did not specify what information prosecutors are searching for.
Some months ago, the report continued, federal prosecutors subpoenaed a lawyer in New Jersey who was seen as a longtime friend of Arslanian. Both are Armenian, and they have known each other for around 25 years, the lawyer told the WSJ. Media outlets in the state have reported that Arslanian was an international businesswoman when she wed Menendez.
NEWS: Prosecutors investigating Sen. Bob Menendez are examining whether his wife received gifts or services from individuals who sought favors from the New Jersey politician https://t.co/XFkY1KZHUG
— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) November 18, 2022
The Daily Caller adds:
Court records allegedly show the ongoing probe dates back to 2019 when federal investigators executed search warrants at the home and office of a New Jersey based businessman, WSJ reported. Moreover, court records from 2020 demonstrate prosecutors were investigating potentially undisclosed foreign lobbying and other violations of federal law, according to the outlet.
Menendez serves as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after he was first elected in 2006. A separate corruption probe brought by prosecutors in 2015 led to a mistrial, WSJ reported. When asked by WSJ for comment, a spokesman referred them to a previous statement saying, “As always, should any official inquiries be made, the senator is available to provide any assistance that is requested of him or his office.”
Last month, two sources familiar with the situation told the news site Semafor that Menendez was under federal investigation for the second time in just a few years, noting that “prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have contacted people connected to Menendez in recent weeks,” and that “they have sent at least one subpoena in the case.”
A spokesman from Menendez’s office, Michael Soliman, told the outlet, “Senator Menendez is aware of an investigation that was reported on today, however, he does not know the scope of the investigation. As always, should any official inquiries be made, the Senator is available to provide any assistance that is requested of him or his office.”
Semafor went on to report details of the first federal probe into Menendez during the Obama administration:
Menendez and a Florida eye doctor, Salomon Melgen, were indicted in 2015 for an alleged arrangement under which the doctor provided flights on a private jet and lavish vacations in exchange for the senator’s help with government contracts and other public favors. Menendez’s lawyers argued that the two men were simply good friends. The inquiry ended in a mistrial in 2017 after the jury failed to reach a verdict. (Melgen was convicted in 2017 of medicare fraud, and received clemency from President Donald Trump in 2021.)
The two people familiar with the investigation, one who is directly connected to the investigation and the other a New Jersey lawyer who has been told of the case, said that the broad outlines of the new inquiry are similar to the 2017 case. Both said that the new investigation involves an entirely different group of people, however.
Bob Menendez is under federal criminal investigation again, 5 years after the DOJ dropped its corruption case against the Democratic senator. https://t.co/6qxq247rY2
— Axios (@axios) October 27, 2022
“But there are also internal Justice Department divisions at play,” she added. “In 2015, charges against Menendez were brought by the Public Integrity Section in Washington after a U.S Attorney in New Jersey handed the case off. The Southern District of New York traditionally operates independently, and bears none of the responsibility for the 2018 failure.”
Also in October, a report noted that President Joe Biden could actually become ensnared in the government’s ongoing investigation into alleged crimes committed by his son, Hunter Biden.
“Emails recovered by DailyMail.com from Hunter’s abandoned laptop between Hunter and Eric Schwerin, his business partner at consultancy Rosemont Seneca, show Schwerin was working on Joe’s taxes, discussing the father and son paying each other’s household bills, and even fielding requests for a book deal for the then-vice president, as well as managing the donation of Joe’s senate papers to the University of Delaware,” the outlet reported.
Republicans have vowed to conduct oversight hearings into allegations of corruption surrounding the Biden family after taking the majority in the House in January.
