“Individuals speak in regards to the Trump [Department of Justice] DOJ,” Bob Menendez, the disgraced former senator from New Jersey, posted on X Friday, “however it was the Democrats who began weaponizing the Justice Dept.”
Individuals speak in regards to the Trump DOJ, however it was the Democrats who began weaponizing the Justice Dept. When, because the Chairman of the SFRC, I did not go together with Obama’s Iran deal, I used to be indicted, and the following day after being stripped of my place, Obama introduced the Iran deal.
— Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) Could 30, 2025
The timing of that message was fascinating. Menendez, a Democrat, is scheduled to report back to federal jail on June 17, after a jury convicted him of accepting virtually $1 million in bribes in change for, amongst different issues, favors that benefited international governments.
The scheme was intensive. Menendez—alongside along with his spouse, Nadine—took gold bars, $480,000 in money, and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible from three New Jersey businessmen, who, in return, had Menendez leverage the ability of his workplace in a litany of corrupt methods. That included serving to safe a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in navy assist to Egypt; aiding Egyptian-American entrepreneur Wael Hana in preserving a monopoly granted to him by that very same nation; making an attempt to affect a number of felony investigations in a approach that might fulfill two of his bribers; and selling the pursuits of Qatar in order that New Jersey actual property developer Fred Daibes might lock down a multi-million greenback funding from a fund related to the Qatari authorities. This checklist just isn’t exhaustive.
The previous senator was convicted final 12 months on all 16 counts, which included bribery, sincere providers wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and appearing as a international agent, amongst a number of others. A choose sentenced him to 11 years in jail, which was, in some sense, a break, contemplating that the federal sentencing pointers beneficial a minimal of 24 years in jail. (His spouse was convicted final month on all counts—15 in her case—and is scheduled to be sentenced in June.)
Menendez’s Friday submit coincides not solely along with his looming jail sentence but additionally with the spate of pardons not too long ago granted by President Donald Trump. It is comprehensible why the previous senator would wish to pull out all of the stops right here. Jail, to place it mildly, sucks. Trump ought to nonetheless decline to indulge him.
Whether or not or not the president might be moved stays unclear. Amongst his current pardons is Paul Walczak, an government who was convicted of withholding thousands and thousands of {dollars} in taxes from his workers’ paychecks after which holding the funds for himself. His pardon got here shortly earlier than he was to report back to jail for an 18-month sentence—and after his mom attended a Trump fundraiser dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the place, in response to the invitation, admission value $1 million. However maybe extra analogous to Menendez’s scenario is the pardon given to Scott Jenkins, the disgraced former Virginia sheriff who, in change for money funds, gave out auxiliary deputy sheriff badges so recipients might invoke particular privileges.
It isn’t precisely a thriller why the pardon energy’s repute is in the bathroom. The issue is a bipartisan one—former President Joe Biden, for his half, issued preemptive pardons for his members of the family, Anthony Fauci, and others, which doesn’t precisely instill confidence within the rule of legislation. Neither does pardoning individuals who sufficiently endear themselves to the chief government. Pardon Lawyer Ed Martin captured these motivations finest on X: “No MAGA left behind,” he wrote Monday, as he thanked Trump for pardoning Jenkins.
However the pardon energy, for all of the adverse consideration it has obtained in current months, will be an unbelievable instrument for good. It’s successfully the one lever to verify overzealous prosecutors and unjust sentences within the federal system. A few of Trump’s pardons make the case for this. Most famously there was Alice Marie Johnson, who was sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole within the ’90s for her position as a drug mule in a cocaine ring; Trump initially commuted her sentence and later pardoned her in 2020. Listed within the newest spherical of pardons have been John Moore and Tanner Mansell, two Florida diving instructors who have been convicted of theft after releasing sharks they thought had been caught illegally—which, as Motive‘s Jacob Sullum notes, was a weird misuse of the discretion afforded to prosecutors.
That’s the type of factor clemency is for: to offer a lifeline to individuals who could have been railroaded by the federal government, which generally will get inventive and fanatical in its makes an attempt to punish individuals. It isn’t alleged to be a get-out-of-jail-free card for well-connected, highly effective individuals who can flatter the president. In any case, Menendez, as a senator, was some of the highly effective individuals within the nation. His case was not an instance of politicizing justice, although a pardon can be.
