The Justice Department is defending its corruption investigation of Sen. Robert Menendez against his attorneys’ accusations of government misconduct, calling the attacks so “sensational” and “frivolous” that their arguments should be flatly rejected.
The New Jersey Democrat’s legal team came out swinging in previous legal filings in which they sought to have criminal charges against the lawmaker dismissed. Federal prosecutors pushed back in their first official response to the accusations, made Monday in court filings.
“The defendants’ lack of candor demonstrates that they are so eager to allege misconduct that they are willing to misrepresent the facts and conceal material evidence in order to do so,” government attorneys wrote.
The rhetorical battle has spilled from the April indictment of Mr. Menendez, who was accused of accepting campaign contributions and lavish gifts — including a Paris vacation, golf outings and trips to the Dominican Republic aboard a private jet — from a wealthy Florida eye doctor in exchange for political and business favors.
Dr. Salomon Melgen was also charged in the same 68-page indictment.
Attorneys for Mr. Menendez and Dr. Melgen have attacked the indictment on several grounds, arguing that the gifts and contributions were tokens of a decadeslong friendship and did not represent any effort to curry political influence, and that the indictment risked criminalizing routine interactions between politicians and their supporters.
They have also accused prosecutors of knowingly eliciting false grand jury testimony from an FBI agent, an accusation the Justice Department said Monday was baseless and irresponsible.
According to Mr. Menendez’s lawyers, the agent testified to a grand jury that it was “perfectly clear” that the senator met with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on behalf of Dr. Melgen in a Medicare billing dispute. However, the agent’s internal notes were much more ambiguous, the attorneys said.
Prosecutors denied any misconduct in Monday’s filings, noting that the Sebelius charge relied on distortion of evidence — “selective snippets” and “creative use of ellipses” were among the claims Justice made — and the ignoring of other people’s testimony about the meeting.
Justice also accused the Menendez team of careless use of case law that “accomplishes little more than the continued erosion of their credibility.”
⦁ This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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