Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and his bride received $13,000 in cash and gifts at their wedding last year, including thousands from friends linked to the senator’s various political scandals and an associate who may soon be tapped to serve as U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, were given $9,000 in cash and $4,000 in gifts, according to filings submitted to the Senate Ethics Committee this week. The couple received $2,000 in cash and gifts from Donald Scarinci and Raúl Alarcón, longtime Menedez associates who testified for the defense at the senator’s 2017 corruption trial. Menendez also received $1,000 in gifts from Philip Sellinger, a prominent Democratic fundraiser who is reported to be in the running for the U.S. attorney slot. The marriage is the second for the 67-year-old Menendez.
The disclosure is a reversal of sorts for Menendez, who was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee in 2018 for failing to disclose tens of thousands of dollars worth of flights and vacations he received from more than a decade ago from Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor convicted on charges that he defrauded Medicare. Menendez was indicted in 2015 on charges that he accepted bribes from Melgen in exchange for political favors. The Justice Department withdrew the case in January 2018 after the jury failed to reach a verdict at trial.
As New Jersey’s senior senator, Menendez will likely have influence on President Biden’s selection for the state’s U.S. attorney. Sellinger, an attorney at the firm Greenberg Traurig, is one of a handful of top candidates for the position, according to reports. In 2012, Sellinger hosted Biden at his home for a Menendez fundraiser. – READ MORE
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