Menendez friends urge judge to weigh ex-senator’s public service in sentencing

Friends of former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) asked the judge overseeing his federal corruption case to weigh his decades of public service when deciding his sentence next month.

In letters to U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein, Menendez’s friends — many of whom said they’ve known the former senator for decades — pointed to his advocacy work and personal friendships as reason the judge should issue Menendez a more lenient penalty.

Robb Watters, founder of the lobbying firm Madison Group, said he met Menendez in 1998 while working on the medium range missile transfer for Israel that year, kicking off “one of the truest friendships” he has encountered in the nation’s capital. The pair have dined together every three weeks for 26 years, he said.

“My purpose in writing this letter and sharing my own experiences with Sen. Menendez is to ensure that the Court can truly see the man that he is, and fairly understand that justice would not be served by a lengthy sentence,” Watters said in a Sept. 4 letter to the court, made public Thursday. “I ask for mercy and understanding for a life that has been devoted to public service, as one who holds a close personal bond with the man, I hope you see.”

Joan Dublin, president of the Metropolitan Family Health Network in Jersey City, N.J., pointed to Menendez’s “dedication to the underserved” in her Aug. 19 letter to the court and said she’s certain this is Menendez’s “lowest point ever in his life.”

“Surely the way he has uplifted his community and each individual whose life Bob has improved must count for something to help minimize the consequences which you have the power to impose,” Dublin said.

Three other friends wrote letters: a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing New Jersey clients, who said he has known Menendez for more than 36 years; the executive director of an adult autism group, the Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation; and a Puerto Rican community leader in Hoboken, N.J.

At the time of publication, none of Menendez’s colleagues in the U.S. Senate had written letters in his support that were made public in court filings.

In July, Menendez was found guilty of all 16 counts he faced, from accepting luxurious bribes in exchange for his political clout to acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. Once chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he now stares down decades in prison.

The New Jersey Democrat maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty, though he stepped away from his post leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted, in line with Senate Democratic Conference rules. He resigned from the Senate in August.

He has vowed to appeal the conviction, telling reporters after the jury delivered its verdict that he has “never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country.” His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29.