(BrightPress.org) – Disgraced New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez had ditched D.C. super-lawyer Abbe Lowell for another longtime lawyer, Robert Luskin, who has also been in trouble for taking payments in gold bars.
The New York Post is also reporting that the switch comes at a time when another long-time co-defendant in Menendez’s case is cooperating with prosecutors.
Lowell is also one of Hunter Biden’s attorneys and has previously successfully represented Menendez when he was charged with bribery. Both Menendez and Luskin have had the nickname “Gold Bar Bob,” for taking payments in gold bars.
The 69-year-old Senator has been in politics since he was a teenager, and has served as a Senator since 2006. He’s currently facing widespread calls to resign, which he said he will resist for the time being.
Menendez’s recent legal woes began in 2022 when the feds raided his home in Englewood, New Jersey, and discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash hidden in his wardrobe as well as a stash of gold bars.
His wife, Nadine Arslanian, and three other men stand charged in the scheme to illegally launder money from Egyptian sources.
Fred Daibes is one of the other men charged in the scheme to bribe Menendez and conspire to illegally act as a foreign agent for Egypt. Gazmend Lita is one of Daibes’s former business partners, and the Post is claiming that he’s been cooperating with prosecutors as part of a plea agreement he made months before the raid.
He’ll serve 3 years probation and get away with one count of being part of an illegal gambling ring in exchange for his testimony which is likely to land Menendez behind bars. He’s also agreed to pay $111,000 in restitution, according to court records.
Despite the legal woes, Menendez has yet to be convicted of a crime and as such he’s refused calls to resign. The issue has garnered enough controversy that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s wife, Tammy Murphy, has announced her intention to primary Menedez in the 2024 election cycle.
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