Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has hired the lawyer representing President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, after Menendez was indicted last week on federal corruption charges.
CNBC reported that Menendez hired Abbe Lowell to represent him in the case — the same lawyer that he hired in 2015 to represent him in a similar corruption case, although legal experts have said that the evidence in the current case is much stronger.
Lowell was hired by Hunter Biden after his plea deal fell apart in federal court last month which eventually led to prosecutors charging Hunter Biden on firearm-related charges.
The federal indictment was unsealed against Menendez on Friday, and it accused the senator and his wife of accepting bribes from three business people in exchange for actions that he took as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. According to the DOJ, the bribes were intended to protect the businessmen and to benefit Egypt.
Menendez faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted of the charges, which include conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the indictment said. Federal authorities reportedly found gold bars and nearly $500,000 in cash stuffed throughout the senator’s home that they traced back to the businessmen Menendez allegedly worked with.
Several top Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have called on Menendez to resign over the scandal, while many others, especially in the U.S. Senate, have remained silent on the issue.
Menendez responded to the indictment by suggesting that he was the victim of a vast conspiracy that was plotting against him, in-part because he was Latino.
“It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat,” he later added. “I am not going anywhere.”