(29 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY WHITE FLASH++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York – 29 January 2025
1. Former Sen. Bob Menendez exiting court and approaching microphones
++CONTINUOUS SHOT++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, (D) New Jersey:
“Good afternoon. Regardless of the judge’s comments today, I am innocent, and I look forward to filing appeals on a whole host of issues. But let me just say this: this whole process has been nothing but a political witch hunt by the Justice Department’s NSD (referring to the National Security Division) and prosecutors who are more interested in political scalps and preparing to run for public office.”
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, (D) New Jersey:
“Only in the SDNY (referring to the Southern District of New York) could you embrace an FBI agent who was caught lying on the stand in order to make their case. Only in the Southern District of New York would prosecutors allow a witness to walk away from over ten criminal charges, including defrauding the United States government so that they can get him to lie on the stand. Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the Wild West of political prosecutions."
++WHITE FLASH
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, (D) New Jersey:
"President Trump is right. This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
5. Menendez walking away
STORYLINE:
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his conviction in a scheme that brought him gold bars, cash and a car and what his lawyer says is a new nickname: "gold bar Bob."
Judge Sidney H. Stein announced the sentence Wednesday after Menendez tearfully addressed the judge, saying he’d lost everything he cared about.
Prosecutors sought a 15-year term for the Democrat convicted of crimes including acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.
Menendez’s lawyers had said prior to the sentencing that their client deserves less than two years in prison, citing his decades of public service and a life largely well-lived after the son of Cuban immigrants rose from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream.”
Following his sentencing, Menendez addressed reporters outside the courthouse calling the entire process a “political witch hunt.”
“Welcome to the Southern District of New York, the Wild West of Political Prosecutions. President Trump is right. This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system,” he said.
Two New Jersey businessmen convicted with Menendez were sentenced earlier Wednesday to seven and eight years in prison.
His wife Nadine Menendez faces trial in March on many of the same charges as her husband after spending the last year battling breast cancer.
AP video shot by Joseph Frederick.
Production: Vanessa A. Alvarez.
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