Below is my column in Fox.com on the superseding indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), who faces new charges after the cooperation of a former associate. The new charges only magnified the striking similarities between the corruption scandals involving Menendez and Hunter Biden. The timing could not be more interesting given filings the same week by Hunter Biden claiming selective prosecution.
Here is the column:
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was in court this week for another superseding indictment brought by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Rather than the four original counts, he now faces 18 counts with his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and alleged co-conspirators Wael Hana and Fred Daibes.
What is most notable is not the proliferation of counts but the lack of comparative charges in the pending case against Hunter Biden. Some of us have long raised concerns over the striking similarity in the alleged conduct in both cases, but the absence of similar charges against the president’s son. That contrast just got even greater.
The allegations in the two cases draw obvious comparisons.
Menendez is accused of accepting a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz as part of the corrupt practices. In Hunter’s case, it was a $142,000 Fisker sports car. For Menendez, there were gold bars worth up to $120,000. For Biden, there was the diamond allegedly worth $80,000.
Underlying both cases are core allegations of influence peddling and corruption. However, the Justice Department threw the book at Menendez while minimizing the charges against Biden.
That includes charging Menendez as an unregistered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Many of us have said for years that the treatment of Hunter under FARA departs significantly from the treatment of various Trump figures like former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort as well as Menendez.
Now, there is a new layer of troubling comparisons to be drawn in the two cases.
The superseding indictment incorporates new charges after the plea and cooperation of Menendez’s former co-defendant and businessman Jose Uribe.
Uribe appears to have supplied the basis for some of the new charges, including a telling account with Nadine Menendez. She allegedly asked Uribe what he would say to law enforcement about the payments used for a Mercedes-Benz convertible and Uribe said that he could say that the payment were a “loan.” Nadine Menendez responded that “sounded good.”
The loan discussion hit a familiar cord with those of us who have written about the Biden corruption scandal. The Bidens have repeatedly referred to payment from foreign sources as “loans.” That most notoriously included millions given by his counsel Kevin Morris.
In some cases, foreign money was received by President Joe Biden’s brother James and then immediately sent to the president’s personal account marked as a loan repayment. James admitted that the $40,000 was coming from the Chinese.
The Justice Department in the Menendez case dismissed the claim of loans as merely a transparent effort to hide influence peddling. That includes not just the convertible payment but more than $23,000 that one businessman made toward the senator’s wife’s mortgage.
Menendez and Biden share the array of luxury gifts, cars, and loans. However, the most important common denominator was the underlying corruption. Both cases are classic examples of influence peddling, which has long been a cottage industry in Washington, D.C.
What they do not share is the same level of prosecution or press support. Menendez is a pariah in Washington and Hunter is the president’s son.
Menendez is blamed by many inside the Beltway not for being corrupt but for being open about it.
The fact that others have been prosecuted for conduct similar to his own has not stopped Hunter from claiming victim status. He has told courts that even the few charges brought against him are evidence of selective prosecution.
In the most recent filing, Special Counsel David Weiss dismissed many of Hunter’s claims as “patently false” and noted that Hunter Biden virtually flaunted his violations and engaged in obvious efforts to evade taxes and hide his crimes.
Weiss further noted that other defendants did not write “a memoir in which they made countless statements proving their crimes and drawing further attention to their criminal conduct.”
It was a devastating take-down of Hunter’s claims, but it did not address the conspicuous omission of charges brought against Menendez, including FARA charges.
It also does not address the fact that the Justice Department not only allowed the statute of limitations to run on major crimes, but sought to finalize an obscene plea agreement with no jail time for Hunter. It only fell apart when a judge decided to ask a couple of cursory questions of the prosecutor, who admitted that he had never seen an agreement this generous for a defendant.
Weiss noted in his filing that they filed new charges only after Hunter’s legal counsel refused to change the agreement and insisted that it remained fully enforceable.
As Hunter continues to claim to be the victim of selective prosecution in various courts, judges need only to look over the Menendez case to see the truth of the matter. Hunter is not the victim of selective prosecution but the beneficiary of special treatment in the legal system.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and a practicing criminal defense attorney. He is a Fox News contributor.
Anon:
You can keep your doctor if you like your doctor.
I never conferred with my family about their business dealings…
There are so many lies on both sides it’s hard to know where to start.
What a shame, once again JT runs with facts not in evidence.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/14/company-paying-fbi-informant-trump-connections
Is JT following the advise of the once and past Nazi, Goebbels? A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.
trump sure seems to love Goebbels, and other nazis, and current dictators. What’s with that?
Common JT, admit you got some things wrong. The truth will catch up.
“Trump connections” Really?
Pull my other finger, it has bells.
The left has been pushing the Russia hoax for ? 8 years now? An you gobble it like manna from heaven
keep focused This is an FBI source. NOT a republican source
Have you read this article ?
This is what passes for news ?
First – the left is having a heyday claiming that Smirov is indicted for lying about the conversation he overheard regarding Burisma bribing the bidens. That is false he is indicted over allegedly lying about his contact with Russians.
The entire Smirnov indictment is a stupid farce and an effort to provide political cover for Joe.
It is not republicans that touted Smirnov’s credibility – it is the FBI that has paid him a fortune for decades and has assessed him multiple times as highly credible. Two separate FBI field offices assessed the Smirnov report on the Biden’s as highly credible.
Regardless, Smirnov is an FBI CHS and their information should ALWAYS be taken with a large grain of salt.
It is not alter boys that overhear the details of bribery schemes. It is not angels that get into the innercircles of drug cartels, the KGB, or Burisma. It should be evident from Christopher Steel that these sources are complex, with their own personal motivations – including money.
Regardless the Smirnov FD 1023 was never absolute proof, but it remains damning evidence today.
It is also likely true. It is not a claim from out of the blue, it is corroboration of what has been testified to by many other sources.
For it to be flase – not only must Smirnov be lying – but many others must also. Weiss has not indicted anyone else.
This appears to be more DOJ efforts to protect Biden. Not a serious indictment for a serious crime.
That too is self evident. I am not aware of the DOJ Ever indicting an FBI CHS for the lying in information they provided to the FBI previously.
That would be stupid. Again FBI CHS’s are NOT nuns. They tend to be bad people. I am sure Smirnov is not a good person.
It is likely that nearly all FBI CHS’s lie constantly. Indicting them for that would dry up all FBI information.
Indicting Smirnov sends the wrong message to other FBI CHS’s and decreases the likelyhood they will continue to provide useful information to the FBI.
As to the “ties to Trump” – your off your rocker. The article was more of this six degrees of separation BS. Everyone is tied to everyone else somehow. The guardian did not connect the dots. It did not even provide anything more than a vague allegation.
I am sure that many businesses have paid Smirnov. I would be surprised if most of those were not unsavory.
I am sure that some were in the mid east. And of course Trump has ties to the mideast, so clearly Smirnov was Paid by Trump.
Beleive that an I have a bridge in brooklyn to sell you.
Do you have an actual credible claim with evidence to support it that Smirnov was paid to smear the Biden’s ?
You do not even have an actual connection to Trump world – atleast nothing stronger than people paid Smirnov, Trump knows People.
So any day now the House will vote to impeach. It will pass with 2/3rd majority because the evidence is…well let’s just leave it at that. Then the Senate will try him and Biden will be convicted by 3/4 because…well because if you say a lie long enough eventually everyone will believe it? I think that is what trump is counting on. Dream on.
I doubt the house will impeach Biden. We are near the end of his term. The election is coming up. There is no reason to impeach.
It is likely at this moment that getting enough votes to impeach would be very difficult. No democrats are going to break ranks depite compelling evidence and there are a few republicans that are standing on principles – that is does not matter tht Democrats have opened the barn door to this, that congress should have a case involving presidential acts.
I disagree with them. I think bribery allegations even as VP meet the constitutional requirements for impeachment. I do not agree with the impeachment is only for acts as president argument – though I do beleive great care should be taken impeaching for acts as a private individual. I would not impeach Biden over FARA violations from 2017-2020 – though I would charge Hunter.
Regardless the point of the impeachment inquiry is not to impeach Biden.
It is to address the problem of left wing nut censorship.
The MSM and SM can not hide from the corruption of the Biden’s so long as the house is holding hearings on impeachment.
The impeachment hearings exist to open a channel for information on Biden misconduct and corruption that is not cesorable by the Biden administration.
The impeachment investigations will continue through the election.
No the Senate will not vote by a 2/3 margin to remove Biden.
Like you they are not going to bother to hear the evidence in the event articles of impeachment reached the senate.
Should the house GOP actualy move to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, it will be to garner the attention a senate trial gets and to get Democrats on the records giving their impramatur to Biden corruption.
What is a loan for? Any loan has to have a reason – why was brother loaning brother so much? Makes no sense- but WHy wasn’t ny hurt by such loan too? They pretend to be hurt by other Trump loans. Derivatively.
Thank God Jonathan Turley is a man of honesty
And integrity! Very hard to find in DC today.
What does Menendez’s superseding indictment do to Trump’s claims of selective prosecution? Oh wait, that doesn’t play well to Fox News crowd. Nevermind…
Actua)ly this says a lot – the feds are on the case. And what are they on ? I don’t know – but I do know scotus is taking up immunity. The ship might get righted. But your right Menendez had gold bars in his pocket- manafort ring a bell? It’s selective bc Trump doesn’t have a fur coat nor bars of gold from foreigners but is being prosecuted over bs charges- that’s selective prosecution.
“What does Menendez’s superseding indictment do to Trump’s claims of selective prosecution?”
It says that shadow-president Obama hates Menendez as much as he hates Trump, so the DOJ will prosecute Obama enemy Menendez under the pretense that it shows bipartisan prosecution, when in REALITY it shows willingness to prosecute Obama’s enemies.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/23/politics/bob-menendez-democrat-republican-what-matters/index.html
I find the Menendez indictment being the result of the DOJ targeting Obama’s enemies laughably rediculous.
But lots of stuff on this site is starting with JT himself.
Wonder how much the network of the big 787 million dollar lie pays him to be their senior propagandist.