The Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday formally admonished Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey over his relations🌺hip with fat-cat pal and donor Dr. 🍃Salomon Melgen.
In a letter, the panel said Menendez “knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from Dr. Melgen without obtaining required🅷 Committee approval, and that you failed to publicly disclose certain gifts as required by Senate Rule and federal law,“ .
Menendez had returned to his position as the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relationsꦕ Committee, a seat h🃏e surrendered after he was indicted on bribery and corruption charges in 2015.
The case against him ended i♓n a mi💮strial in November after the jury deadlocked.
In January, the federal judge hearing the c🎶ase threw out the most seﷺrious bribery charge against him, and a week later, the feds dropped the rest of the charges.
But Menendez fears his troubles ar𝓡e not over, and that Russia will t💞arget him in his bid for reelection in November.
“I”m a great target for their next 𒆙efforts,” Menendez said Thursday, .
“It’s well known that theyဣ are in the midst of engaging in our elections generally as we speak. The whole system is under assault, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“ꦇNo one has pushed Russian sanctions harder tha༒n I have,” Menendez said. “So if you can mess around with an election, why not?”
Menendez 🐠will face former Celgene Corp. exe꧋cutive Bob Hugin, and is a strong favorite to win a third term.