After a political career that included almost two decades as a Democrat in the United States Senate, Bob Menendez is looking at spending more than a decade in a United States federal prison.
And after a ruling Wednesday by a federal appeals court, he’s going to be behind bars while his appeal plays out.
But Menendez, convicted in July of last year of 16 corruption charges, is still claiming he was the victim of a prosecution vendetta.
Appeals court denies former Sen. Bob Menendez’s bid to stay out of prison https://t.co/TrPgpYcFuz
— The Hill (@thehill) June 11, 2025
Wednesday’s decision by a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges denied a bid for bail that Menendez sought while he appeals his conviction, according to the Associated Press. The 2-1 ruling did not include any explanation, but its impact was evident.
Unless the Supreme Court takes up the case, Menendez, who is scheduled to report to prison on Tuesday, is going to be serving his 11-year sentence even as he fights to get the conviction overturned.
The case of the former New Jersey senator, who resigned from the Senate after his conviction, was not only a disgrace to the government and the Garden State, it became a national joke, with its FBI raid turning up gold bars, as well as copious amounts of cash hidden in the Menendez home.
In 2023, then-Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz argued on the House floor that Menendez demanding bribes in gold bars was a sign of how inflation had gotten under then-President Joe Biden.
Even the infamously liberal comedian Jon Stewart mocked Menendez on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
But Menendez continues to claim innocence and is fighting for his political reputation.
In a lengthy thread posted to the social media platform X on Wednesday, he argued that his case was a result of “weaponization” in the legal system, overseen by a prosecutor using it to advance his own political career.
He wrote that Damian Williams, the now former U.S. attorney who handled his case for the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York office, is a protege of former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and an ally of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — and implicitly likened his own prosecution to the legal assaults mounted by those men against now-President Donald Trump.
“The bottom line is that Damian Williams is going to run for public office and all of these prosecutions are just ways for him to build credibility for a future political career,” he wrote.
Some social media users saw the thread as part of an effort to get help from the White House.
Days before he’s set to report to federal prison, Bob Menendez is making a pretty explicit appeal to Trump pic.twitter.com/EiPfIlLbo8
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) June 11, 2025
“Days before he’s set to report to federal prison, Bob Menendez is making a pretty explicit appeal to Trump,” one wrote.
Mendez’s wife, Nadine, was convicted of accepting bribes during a separate trial in April, the AP noted. Her sentencing is set for Sept. 11.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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