Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) reported to a federal prison in Pennsylvania on Tuesday to begin an 11-year sentence following his conviction on bribery and other corruption charges.
The New Jersey Democrat was found guilty last year on all 16 counts, including that he accepted bribes from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for his political clout and that he acted as a foreign agent of Egypt.
Menendez was in custody Tuesday at the Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill, according to the Bureau of Prisons, a facility in Minersville, Pa., that has both a medium and minimum-security prison and is less than three hours from his New Jersey home. It houses roughly 1,200 inmates.
A federal appeals court last week denied Menendez’s last-ditch bid to stave off his prison term while appealing his conviction, letting his report date stand in a 2-1 decision that offered no explanation for the split.
Once the chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez’s conviction amounted to a stunning fall from grace. He is the first senator ever found guilty of acting as a foreign agent while in office.
Damian Williams, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, called Menendez’s conduct “shocking corruption” following his conviction.
“This wasn’t politics as usual,” Williams said at the time. “This was politics for profit. And now that a jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end.”
A federal jury in New York determined that the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and a luxury car from the three businessmen — Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe. In exchange, the men benefited from Menendez’s political power.
Hana and Daibes were convicted at trial alongside Menendez and reported to prison last month. Uribe pleaded guilty before facing a jury.
Nadine Menendez, accused of acting as a go-between for her husband and the businessmen while accepting the bribes and conspiring to turn him into a foreign agent of Egypt, in April was convicted on all counts she faced. Her sentencing is set for Sept. 11.
Lawyers for Menendez have called his punishment “a life and death sentence,” citing the 71-year-old former senator’s age and condition.
His allies have since reportedly made overtures to the White House for a pardon from President Trump, who has not openly ruled out clemency for the ex-senator.
Menendez has repeatedly compared his criminal conviction to Trump’s. The New Jersey Democrat exclaimed after his sentencing that “President Trump was right,” deeming his own prosecution “political” and “corrupted to the core” while suggesting that the president’s prosecution was, as well.
Last week, he again alleged similarities between their prosecutions in a winding post on the social platform X about “how weaponization works.”
Such efforts paid off for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose criminal case was dismissed after Trump’s Justice Department made the request to a judge following months when the mayor seemed to be cozying up to the president. But Trump has remained mum on any clemency for Menendez.
The New Jersey Democrat said after his conviction that he “never violated” his public oath.
“I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country,” he said at the time.
The Hill requested comment from his lawyers.
Menendez previously faced federal corruption charges in 2015, but they were dropped after a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Updated at 10:31 a.m. EDT
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