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Senator Menendez Denies Partying With Prostitutes In The Dominican Republic
Posted on: 9:56 am, February 5, 2013, by Staff Writer
http://fox2now.com/2013/02/05/senato...ican-republic/
Menendez holds presser
(CNN) — Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, in an exclusive television interview with CNN on Monday, denied claims that he had engaged in parties with prostitutes during trips to the Dominican Republic.
“The bottom line is all those smears are absolutely false,” Menendez told CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.
The New Jersey Democrat is also battling allegations of improper travel with a generous donor whose plane he took to the Dominican Republic and who has business ties in the Caribbean nation.
Shortly before Election Day, a conservative online publication cited three unidentified sources who claimed Menendez had flown on private planes to the Caribbean and during the trips had sex parties with prostitutes.
Menendez, however, fired back on Monday and called the prostitute allegations “unsubstantiated.”
“The smears that right-wing blogs have been pushing since the election — and that is totally unsubstantiated and it’s amazing to me that anonymous, nameless, faceless individuals on a web site can drive that type of story into the mainstream,” he said.
“But that’s what they’ve done successfully. Now nobody can find them. No one ever met them. No one ever talked to them but that’s where we’re at,” he added.
His comments came as one of the women accused of being a prostitute involved with Menendez denied those claims in a Spanish-language interview released on Monday.
The woman, identified as 21-year-old Yaneisi Fernandez, says she’s never met Menendez or worked as a prostitute.
“I’ve never participated in those activities, I don’t know those people or that man,” Fernandez told Univision.
As for the other allegations, Menendez has faced scrutiny for taking multiple flights in 2010 with the donor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, a South Florida ophthalmologist. However, he didn’t pay for the flights-valued at $58,500-until January 4 of this year.
Asked Monday why it took so long to repay the money, Menendez said he was having a busy year and chalked it up to an oversight.
“I was in a big travel schedule in 2010 as the chair of the (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee), plus my own campaign getting ready for a re-election cycle and in the process of all of that, it unfortunately fell through the cracks,” he told CNN.
“When it came to my attention that payment had not taken place, I personally paid for them in order to meet my obligation,” he added.
Pressed further on how he managed to overlook such a big chunk of money, Menendez said, “The bottom line is when it came to my attention, I paid for it.”
“There were a series of flights that were alleged,” he continued. “Several of them were shown not to be the case, but after the election when I got to look at the allegations and I did my own self-inspection, I ultimately came forward. As a matter of fact, one of those flights I self reported.”
The latest allegations are based on documents published by a non-partisan Washington watchdog group – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW. The group published an e-mail this week it received last April from a man who identified himself as Peter Williams.
“My duty as a U.S. citizen obligates me to report what I consider to be a grave violation of the most fundamental codes of conduct that a politician of my country must follow,” the tipster wrote.
E-mails sent by Williams included statements from women detailing what they said were sex parties in a house and on a yacht in the Dominican Republic owned by Dr. Salomon Melgen, a south Florida ophthalmologist.
Williams suggested that he and the women “will be willing to testify” about the allegations if their safety was guaranteed.
The documents released by CREW identify Yaneisi Fernandez as one of the prostitutes connected to Menendez, allegations she told Univision were completely false.
“No, that is completely false. I don’t even know that man. Not even through TV have I seen him,” she said. CNN is not able to verify Fernandez’s story.
A translation of the Univision interview with Fernandez was e-mailed to reporters by staffers in Menendez’s Senate office. The translation was confirmed to be accurate by CNN.
An official working for Menendez told CNN the video “is pretty damning to those who continue to peddle ‘Pete Williams” allegations and all this garbage.”
“Real people get hurt,” the official said.
CNN’s Jim Acosta, Adriana Hauser, Alan Duke, Kevin Liptak and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta/+1-404-827-WIRE(9473)
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
Posted on: 9:56 am, February 5, 2013, by Staff Writer
http://fox2now.com/2013/02/05/senato...ican-republic/
Menendez holds presser
(CNN) — Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, in an exclusive television interview with CNN on Monday, denied claims that he had engaged in parties with prostitutes during trips to the Dominican Republic.
“The bottom line is all those smears are absolutely false,” Menendez told CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.
The New Jersey Democrat is also battling allegations of improper travel with a generous donor whose plane he took to the Dominican Republic and who has business ties in the Caribbean nation.
Shortly before Election Day, a conservative online publication cited three unidentified sources who claimed Menendez had flown on private planes to the Caribbean and during the trips had sex parties with prostitutes.
Menendez, however, fired back on Monday and called the prostitute allegations “unsubstantiated.”
“The smears that right-wing blogs have been pushing since the election — and that is totally unsubstantiated and it’s amazing to me that anonymous, nameless, faceless individuals on a web site can drive that type of story into the mainstream,” he said.
“But that’s what they’ve done successfully. Now nobody can find them. No one ever met them. No one ever talked to them but that’s where we’re at,” he added.
His comments came as one of the women accused of being a prostitute involved with Menendez denied those claims in a Spanish-language interview released on Monday.
The woman, identified as 21-year-old Yaneisi Fernandez, says she’s never met Menendez or worked as a prostitute.
“I’ve never participated in those activities, I don’t know those people or that man,” Fernandez told Univision.
As for the other allegations, Menendez has faced scrutiny for taking multiple flights in 2010 with the donor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, a South Florida ophthalmologist. However, he didn’t pay for the flights-valued at $58,500-until January 4 of this year.
Asked Monday why it took so long to repay the money, Menendez said he was having a busy year and chalked it up to an oversight.
“I was in a big travel schedule in 2010 as the chair of the (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee), plus my own campaign getting ready for a re-election cycle and in the process of all of that, it unfortunately fell through the cracks,” he told CNN.
“When it came to my attention that payment had not taken place, I personally paid for them in order to meet my obligation,” he added.
Pressed further on how he managed to overlook such a big chunk of money, Menendez said, “The bottom line is when it came to my attention, I paid for it.”
“There were a series of flights that were alleged,” he continued. “Several of them were shown not to be the case, but after the election when I got to look at the allegations and I did my own self-inspection, I ultimately came forward. As a matter of fact, one of those flights I self reported.”
The latest allegations are based on documents published by a non-partisan Washington watchdog group – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW. The group published an e-mail this week it received last April from a man who identified himself as Peter Williams.
“My duty as a U.S. citizen obligates me to report what I consider to be a grave violation of the most fundamental codes of conduct that a politician of my country must follow,” the tipster wrote.
E-mails sent by Williams included statements from women detailing what they said were sex parties in a house and on a yacht in the Dominican Republic owned by Dr. Salomon Melgen, a south Florida ophthalmologist.
Williams suggested that he and the women “will be willing to testify” about the allegations if their safety was guaranteed.
The documents released by CREW identify Yaneisi Fernandez as one of the prostitutes connected to Menendez, allegations she told Univision were completely false.
“No, that is completely false. I don’t even know that man. Not even through TV have I seen him,” she said. CNN is not able to verify Fernandez’s story.
A translation of the Univision interview with Fernandez was e-mailed to reporters by staffers in Menendez’s Senate office. The translation was confirmed to be accurate by CNN.
An official working for Menendez told CNN the video “is pretty damning to those who continue to peddle ‘Pete Williams” allegations and all this garbage.”
“Real people get hurt,” the official said.
CNN’s Jim Acosta, Adriana Hauser, Alan Duke, Kevin Liptak and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta/+1-404-827-WIRE(9473)
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
Senator Has Long Ties to Donor Under Scrutiny
Doug Mills/The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/ny...pagewanted=all
Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, in Washington on Monday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has raided the offices of a Florida eye surgeon who is a wealthy Democratic Party donor with close ties to him.
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and FRANCES ROBLES
Published: January 31, 2013
He rushed to the senator’s side when Mr. Menendez’s mother died, flew him around on his private jet and delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit Mr. Menendez and the national Democratic Party.
Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, has also been helpful to Dr. Melgen, according to records and interviews, in ways that could bring the doctor a highly lucrative windfall.
Two years ago, Dr. Melgen, despite an apparent lack of experience in border security issues, bought an ownership interest in a company that had a long-dormant contract with the Dominican Republic to provide port security. Mr. Menendez, who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that holds sway over the Dominican Republic, subsequently urged officials in the State and Commerce Departments to intervene so the contract would be enforced, at an estimated value of $500 million.
This week, a team of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Dr. Melgen’s offices in West Palm Beach, removing 30 boxes of documents and other material, and the senator now finds himself defending his relationship with a major political benefactor just as he is on the verge of reaching the most prestigious post of his career — the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
An F.B.I. spokesman declined to describe the focus of the agency’s inquiry. A law enforcement official cautioned that there were many issues involving Dr. Melgen that could be under scrutiny.
On Wednesday, Dr. Melgen released a statement through his lawyer: “The government has not informed Dr. Melgen what its concerns are. However, we are confident that Dr. Melgen has acted appropriately at all times.”
Mr. Menendez, who was re-elected last year, declined to be interviewed. His office issued a statement, saying, in part, “Dr. Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of Senator Menendez for many years,” and an aide said in an interview that the senator had done nothing improper in advocating for Dr. Melgen’s business interests.
Aides to the senator said, however, that Mr. Menendez had accepted two round-trip flights aboard Dr. Melgen’s jet for personal vacations in the Dominican Republic in 2010. He failed to report them as gifts or reimburse Dr. Melgen at the time, as required, and this month he sent the doctor a check to cover the cost of the flights.
The friendship between the two men goes back to the 1990s, when Mr. Menendez, who entered the House of Representatives in 1993, began regularly visiting the Dominican Republic. They spent holidays together, often in the Dominican Republic, where Dr. Melgen has a home in Casa de Campo, a gated oceanfront resort where houses cost as much as $20 million and which has been home to some of the country’s richest residents, like Oscar de la Renta.
Both enjoyed a good cigar and playing golf; Casa de Campo has several places to play, designed by the renowned course architect Pete Dye.
Dr. Melgen, who friends say longed to play the role of power broker, and his wife began donating to Mr. Menendez’s Congressional campaigns in the late 1990s, and their contributions grew, along with their friendship, over the years. By the time of the 2009-10 election cycle, when Mr. Menendez took charge of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Dr. Melgen became an important fund-raiser for the effort. In May 2010, he flew the senator to the Dominican Republic and held a fund-raiser at his home. He and his wife gave the committee $60,000 and helped raised more.
Later that summer, Dr. Melgen also flew Mr. Menendez to the Dominican Republic for the two short personal vacations, in August and September. Aides said it was simply because of sloppy paperwork that the senator did not repay Dr. Melgen at the time. After reports surfaced late last year on The Daily Caller, a conservative Web site, about his travels with Dr. Melgen, the senator recently sent Dr. Melgen’s company a check for $58,500.
Also in 2010, Dr. Melgen moved to buy the ownership interest in ICSSI, a company based in the Caribbean that had been awarded a contract to provide extensive screening of cargo from ports in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican government was refusing to honor that contract, after Miguel Cocco, then the Dominican customs director, had long said the deal was an exorbitant giveaway to the company.
In a letter to the president’s legal adviser, Mr. Cocco said that the deal was “against the interests of the Dominican government, due to its one-sided nature, exorbitant clauses, that it violates Dominican laws,” and that there had been a “lack of transparency, commercial ethics in the granting of the contract.”
Dr. Melgen brought the matter to the attention of Mr. Menendez. Estimates vary on the contract’s value, but critics say it could cost as much as $50 million annually; the original terms of the contract, approved in 2003, called for 20 years of payments.
The American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic has opposed the deal. Some Dominican business leaders have suggested that Dr. Melgen is trying to use his political connections to force the contract to be paid.
“The owners of ICSSI have been actively seeking a partner who would be able to get the contract implemented,” the chamber’s executive vice president, William Malamud, said. “He seemed to convince them that he had what it takes. But he has, to my knowledge, no previous experience in port security.”
Aides acknowledged on Wednesday that Mr. Menendez had spoken to State Department officials about the contract. And at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere last July, he questioned two administration officials — Francisco J. Sánchez, the undersecretary for international trade at the Commerce Department, and Matthew Rooney, the deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs for the State Department — about why the United States government had not been more aggressive on the issue. The senator said more security was needed given the drug trade on the island.
“You have another company that has American investors that is seeking to — has a contract actually given to it by the — kind of ratified by the Dominican Congress to do X-ray of all of the cargo that goes through the ports, which have been problematic and for which in the past narcotics have been included in those cargo,” the senator said at the hearing, according to a transcript provided by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group. “And they don’t want to live by the contract either. You have some of the other countries that I have mentioned today with arbitration awards that have gone against them, and yet they don’t want to live by that. Well, what are we willing to do?”
Mr. Menendez’s chief of staff, Daniel O’Brien, said there was nothing unusual about the advocacy, saying the senator had always fought for “U.S. companies that are not being treated fairly or have issues pending in foreign countries.”
But Ken Boehm, the chairman of the government watchdog group, called the actions troubling. “At a minimum, the public is entitled to know more about this relationship,” Mr. Boehm said. “It’s a matter of transparency and accountability.”
Supporters of Dr. Melgen said he and the senator were now the focus of attacks because Dominican drug traffickers want to undermine the port deal.
The friendship between the two men is a focus among prominent Latinos, especially those with interests involving the Obama administration.
“Whenever I see Menendez, I see him with this medical doctor,” said Bernardo Vega, a former Dominican ambassador to the United States and now editor of a magazine that has been critical of the port deal.
In Florida political circles, one Miami Democrat explained, it is understood that anyone seeking a federal appointment that requires Mr. Menendez’s blessing should first get Dr. Melgen’s backing.
“If you needed Bob, you had to see Melgen,” said the Democrat, who insisted on anonymity for fear of upsetting party leaders. “Everybody in Miami knew that.”
In addition to the security company, in 2011 Dr. Melgen founded a Latino-oriented news Web site, Voxxi, which has also emphasized the need for the port security deal and glowingly depicted Mr. Menendez as a giant among Latinos. A former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of career damage, said Dr. Melgen would often intervene in the coverage, requiring editors to play down achievements by Republicans like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and replace it with praise for Mr. Menendez.
And Dr. Melgen may have found another route to help Mr. Menendez and his party in the elections last fall, when the senator faced Joe Kyrillos, a Republican in the New Jersey Senate, whose candidacy was heavily promoted by one of Mr. Menendez’s chief antagonists — Gov. Chris Christie.
In the end, Mr. Menendez won with about 58 percent of the vote, partly because of the support he received from Majority PAC, a “super PAC” set up by former aides to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader.
As the campaign entered its final weeks, the PAC poured $582,500 into New Jersey to support Mr. Menendez’s re-election effort. One of the organization’s biggest donors? Dr. Melgen’s company, which donated $700,000 between June and October.
Kitty Bennett and Derek Willis contributed reporting.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/ny...pagewanted=all
Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, in Washington on Monday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has raided the offices of a Florida eye surgeon who is a wealthy Democratic Party donor with close ties to him.
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and FRANCES ROBLES
Published: January 31, 2013
He rushed to the senator’s side when Mr. Menendez’s mother died, flew him around on his private jet and delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit Mr. Menendez and the national Democratic Party.
Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, has also been helpful to Dr. Melgen, according to records and interviews, in ways that could bring the doctor a highly lucrative windfall.
Two years ago, Dr. Melgen, despite an apparent lack of experience in border security issues, bought an ownership interest in a company that had a long-dormant contract with the Dominican Republic to provide port security. Mr. Menendez, who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that holds sway over the Dominican Republic, subsequently urged officials in the State and Commerce Departments to intervene so the contract would be enforced, at an estimated value of $500 million.
This week, a team of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Dr. Melgen’s offices in West Palm Beach, removing 30 boxes of documents and other material, and the senator now finds himself defending his relationship with a major political benefactor just as he is on the verge of reaching the most prestigious post of his career — the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
An F.B.I. spokesman declined to describe the focus of the agency’s inquiry. A law enforcement official cautioned that there were many issues involving Dr. Melgen that could be under scrutiny.
On Wednesday, Dr. Melgen released a statement through his lawyer: “The government has not informed Dr. Melgen what its concerns are. However, we are confident that Dr. Melgen has acted appropriately at all times.”
Mr. Menendez, who was re-elected last year, declined to be interviewed. His office issued a statement, saying, in part, “Dr. Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of Senator Menendez for many years,” and an aide said in an interview that the senator had done nothing improper in advocating for Dr. Melgen’s business interests.
Aides to the senator said, however, that Mr. Menendez had accepted two round-trip flights aboard Dr. Melgen’s jet for personal vacations in the Dominican Republic in 2010. He failed to report them as gifts or reimburse Dr. Melgen at the time, as required, and this month he sent the doctor a check to cover the cost of the flights.
The friendship between the two men goes back to the 1990s, when Mr. Menendez, who entered the House of Representatives in 1993, began regularly visiting the Dominican Republic. They spent holidays together, often in the Dominican Republic, where Dr. Melgen has a home in Casa de Campo, a gated oceanfront resort where houses cost as much as $20 million and which has been home to some of the country’s richest residents, like Oscar de la Renta.
Both enjoyed a good cigar and playing golf; Casa de Campo has several places to play, designed by the renowned course architect Pete Dye.
Dr. Melgen, who friends say longed to play the role of power broker, and his wife began donating to Mr. Menendez’s Congressional campaigns in the late 1990s, and their contributions grew, along with their friendship, over the years. By the time of the 2009-10 election cycle, when Mr. Menendez took charge of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Dr. Melgen became an important fund-raiser for the effort. In May 2010, he flew the senator to the Dominican Republic and held a fund-raiser at his home. He and his wife gave the committee $60,000 and helped raised more.
Later that summer, Dr. Melgen also flew Mr. Menendez to the Dominican Republic for the two short personal vacations, in August and September. Aides said it was simply because of sloppy paperwork that the senator did not repay Dr. Melgen at the time. After reports surfaced late last year on The Daily Caller, a conservative Web site, about his travels with Dr. Melgen, the senator recently sent Dr. Melgen’s company a check for $58,500.
Also in 2010, Dr. Melgen moved to buy the ownership interest in ICSSI, a company based in the Caribbean that had been awarded a contract to provide extensive screening of cargo from ports in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican government was refusing to honor that contract, after Miguel Cocco, then the Dominican customs director, had long said the deal was an exorbitant giveaway to the company.
In a letter to the president’s legal adviser, Mr. Cocco said that the deal was “against the interests of the Dominican government, due to its one-sided nature, exorbitant clauses, that it violates Dominican laws,” and that there had been a “lack of transparency, commercial ethics in the granting of the contract.”
Dr. Melgen brought the matter to the attention of Mr. Menendez. Estimates vary on the contract’s value, but critics say it could cost as much as $50 million annually; the original terms of the contract, approved in 2003, called for 20 years of payments.
The American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic has opposed the deal. Some Dominican business leaders have suggested that Dr. Melgen is trying to use his political connections to force the contract to be paid.
“The owners of ICSSI have been actively seeking a partner who would be able to get the contract implemented,” the chamber’s executive vice president, William Malamud, said. “He seemed to convince them that he had what it takes. But he has, to my knowledge, no previous experience in port security.”
Aides acknowledged on Wednesday that Mr. Menendez had spoken to State Department officials about the contract. And at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere last July, he questioned two administration officials — Francisco J. Sánchez, the undersecretary for international trade at the Commerce Department, and Matthew Rooney, the deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs for the State Department — about why the United States government had not been more aggressive on the issue. The senator said more security was needed given the drug trade on the island.
“You have another company that has American investors that is seeking to — has a contract actually given to it by the — kind of ratified by the Dominican Congress to do X-ray of all of the cargo that goes through the ports, which have been problematic and for which in the past narcotics have been included in those cargo,” the senator said at the hearing, according to a transcript provided by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group. “And they don’t want to live by the contract either. You have some of the other countries that I have mentioned today with arbitration awards that have gone against them, and yet they don’t want to live by that. Well, what are we willing to do?”
Mr. Menendez’s chief of staff, Daniel O’Brien, said there was nothing unusual about the advocacy, saying the senator had always fought for “U.S. companies that are not being treated fairly or have issues pending in foreign countries.”
But Ken Boehm, the chairman of the government watchdog group, called the actions troubling. “At a minimum, the public is entitled to know more about this relationship,” Mr. Boehm said. “It’s a matter of transparency and accountability.”
Supporters of Dr. Melgen said he and the senator were now the focus of attacks because Dominican drug traffickers want to undermine the port deal.
The friendship between the two men is a focus among prominent Latinos, especially those with interests involving the Obama administration.
“Whenever I see Menendez, I see him with this medical doctor,” said Bernardo Vega, a former Dominican ambassador to the United States and now editor of a magazine that has been critical of the port deal.
In Florida political circles, one Miami Democrat explained, it is understood that anyone seeking a federal appointment that requires Mr. Menendez’s blessing should first get Dr. Melgen’s backing.
“If you needed Bob, you had to see Melgen,” said the Democrat, who insisted on anonymity for fear of upsetting party leaders. “Everybody in Miami knew that.”
In addition to the security company, in 2011 Dr. Melgen founded a Latino-oriented news Web site, Voxxi, which has also emphasized the need for the port security deal and glowingly depicted Mr. Menendez as a giant among Latinos. A former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of career damage, said Dr. Melgen would often intervene in the coverage, requiring editors to play down achievements by Republicans like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and replace it with praise for Mr. Menendez.
And Dr. Melgen may have found another route to help Mr. Menendez and his party in the elections last fall, when the senator faced Joe Kyrillos, a Republican in the New Jersey Senate, whose candidacy was heavily promoted by one of Mr. Menendez’s chief antagonists — Gov. Chris Christie.
In the end, Mr. Menendez won with about 58 percent of the vote, partly because of the support he received from Majority PAC, a “super PAC” set up by former aides to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader.
As the campaign entered its final weeks, the PAC poured $582,500 into New Jersey to support Mr. Menendez’s re-election effort. One of the organization’s biggest donors? Dr. Melgen’s company, which donated $700,000 between June and October.
Kitty Bennett and Derek Willis contributed reporting.
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