CNN reports that the Justice Department plans to bring criminal corruption charges against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ).
“The government’s case centers on Menendez’s relationship with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who the senator has called a friend and political supporter,” CNN reports. “Melgen and his family have been generous donors to the senator and various committees the senator is associated with.”
Breitbart News investigative journalist Matthew Boyle first broke the Menendez scandal while working for The Daily Caller before the 2012 election, right before he came to work for Breitbart News, and Breitbart News has been reporting on this story for more than two years. In Jan. of 2013, for example, Breitbart News wrote that “Menendez’s staff admitted the senator flew to the Dominican on Melgen’s private plane on three occasions and told NBC News’ Michael Isikoff that Menendez stays at Melgen’s villa while there about twice a year.”
The pair’s involvement in a “Dominican port security deal reads like the plot of a Hollywood movie,” as Breitbart News detailed in March of 2013. When Menendez was up for reelection, Breitbart News reported that Melgen donated more than $700,000, and also gave generously to New Jersey county Democratic committees.
Melgen has had legal problems of his own. “Earlier this year, the FBI raided the medical offices of Dr. Salomon Melgen, seizing documents to investigate suspicions that he was overbilling Medicare,” Breitbart News reported in Feb. 2013.
The potential indictment comes after Democrat Menendez publicly disagreed with the Obama administration on two high profile issues: its Cuba policy and its Iran policy.