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Menendez, Thomas, McCarthy, and Trump: A Tough Week For A Blogger With Limited Time*
I average about one post per week. Events of the past week present a challenge to someone like me with limited time for blogging. A few of the events worthy of a deep dive include:
The Second Corruption Indictment of Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)
Robert Menendez began dating Nadine Arslanian shortly after he “beat” 2015 federal corruption charges in 2017 with a hung jury and the DOJ said it would not try him again. He’d been accused of accepting close to $1 million in gifts and campaign contributions from a Palm Beach, Florida ophthalmologist in exchange for using his power in the senate to influence the outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to the doctor and to support the visa applications of several of the doctor’s girlfriends. Senator Menedez’s 2015 indictment.
Robert and Nadine eventually married. She introduced the senator to a longtime friend, Wael Hana, “an Egyptian American businessman in New Jersey. The future Ms. Menendez was eager to connect her influential boyfriend with Mr. Hana’s high-level connections in the Egyptian government.” Gold Bullion and Halal Meat: Inside the Menendez Investigation.