NBC NEWS IS REPORTING: At a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee hearing on the subject of “doing business in Latin America” held Aug. 1, 2012. Sen Menendez pressed for tighter security at Dominican Republican ports.
Menendez did not name it, but he pumped the company of campaign donor and prostitute procurer Dr Salomon Melgen (a Miami opthamologist looking to make big bucks in port security).
Menendez told US State Dept officials who were summoned to the hearing: “You have another company that has American investors that is seeking to — has a contract, actually, given to it by the, kind of ratified by, the Dominican Republic Congress — to X-ray all of the cargo that goes through the ports,” Menendez said.
Menendez later used his position to pressure the State Dept to advance the scheme----crassly using US govt authority and govt resources to benefit himself and a crony.
A spokesman for Menendez said his statement and his later calls to the State Department on behalf of Melgen were “routine.”
The National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group alleges “Senator Menendez was promoting the financial interests of Dr. Melgen’s company,” even though Melgen–--- a Miami opthamologist– has “no background in port security.”
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PLAIN AS THE NOSE ON YOUR FACE Apparently, Menendez, Melgen and Dominican Republic federales colluded to cut a deal which would profit them hundreds of millions of dollars....with kickbacks and money laundering facilitating the deal.
If he did this as a private citizen, it would not be a crime—---but Menendez is an elected official with “the power of the purse.” He used his elected office and US govt authority to benefit himself—-the self-same reason Sen Harrison Williams went to jail.
I suggest Menendez start writing that resignation letter NOW.
Didnt he just get a Senate committee asignment?