The heat’s on New Jersey’s senior senator. An indictment against Sen. Robert Menendez on federal corruption charges could come as early as tomorrow. And the New York Times is quoting people close to the investigation as saying prosecutors want his friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen, to testify against him. Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron has been following the case.
“We don’t know whether Robert Menendez is going to be indicted tomorrow. Politico and Bloomberg are also carrying this report. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark won’t say whether they have any press conference scheduled for tomorrow. As you know, the case revolves around Menendez’s relationship with a Florida eye surgeon and whether Menenedez went to bat for his friend before federal agencies in a way that breaks the law,” Aron said.
Melgen was a heavy contributor to Menendez and Democratic causes. Aron said there could be a charge of theft of honest services or misuse of office for personal gain. Menendez has maintained that he has done nothing improper and it appears Melgen is resisting the request for cooperation and may himself be indicted tomorrow, according to Aron.
It’s been six months since Cooper University Health System CEO John Sheridan and his wife were found dead in their home. Prosecutors are calling it a murder-suicide, something their sons are denying.
“This is an explosive situation or incident,” Aron said. “Anyone who knew John Sheridan finds this whole scenario incomprehensible. Sheridan in addition to be Tom Kean Sr.’s commissioner of transportation and attorney at Riker Danzig and subsequently the CEO at Cooper, he was a calm guy, he was a low key guy, a gentleman. And certainly their four sons find this incomprehensible that their father could’ve stabbed their mother either three or eight times in the head and once in the chest and then set a fire to take his own life. They’re going to file a lawsuit to challenge the prosecutor’s findings.”
We don’t know if Gov. Chris Christie is going to run for president but some are saying he did propose tighter restrictions on abortion. Aron disagrees.
“What he did was he answered a questionnaire from the Susan B. Anthony list, which is an anti-abortion group, after 12 other Republican presidential candidates said they would support a federal bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks when those people say a fetus can begin to feel pain. Christie hadn’t bothered to answer their questionnaire. He quickly corrected that,” Aron said. “It doesn’t change anything he’s ever said about abortion. I think it’s him just finally getting around to something where he didn’t want to be embarrassed. But clearly it also has presidential implications. It means all the Republicans are pro-life and it’s a shadow campaign. We don’t know if he’s in it or not.”