1. Standard membersasquatch672
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    30 Jan '13 20:23
    Bye Bye, Bob Menendez!

    FBI raids West Palm Beach office of doctor tied to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez

    The FBI raided the office of a South Florida eye doctor who last year was accused of providing prostitutes to longtime ally Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat.


    New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez

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    BY MARC CAPUTO, JAY WEAVER AND SCOTT HIAASEN
    MCAPUTO@MIAMIHERALD.COM
    FBI agents late Tuesday night raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.”

    Agents gathered at the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, to start hauling away potential evidence in several vans.

    The investigation is believed to be focusing on Melgen’s finances and the allegations about Menendez’s trips and contact with prostitutes. A spokesman for Menendez could not be reached for comment, nor could Melgen.

    Melgen has an outstanding IRS lien of $11.1 million for taxes owed from 2006 to 2009, according to records filed with the Palm Beach County recorder’s office. A previous IRS lien for $6.2 million was released in 2011.

    Despite those financial problems, Melgen and his family have contributed at least $357,000 to candidates and committees since 1998, according to Florida and federal campaign records. Of that, the Melgens have contributed about 9 percent to Menendez’s federal campaigns.

    Melgen also owns a private CL-600 Challenger plane through one of his West Palm Beach-based companies, and frequently flies between South Florida and Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, where he is from.

    Menendez has flown on the plane at least once, his office has said, when he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2009 to 2011, when the Melgens contributed about $60,400 to the group. A spokeswoman had previously said that Menendez and Melgen are longtime friends and said the senator did nothing improper.

    Melgen was first linked to Menendez just before the November elections, when the conservative Daily Caller website interviewed two alleged prostitutes who said they had relations with the New Jersey Democrat at Melgen’s Dominican Republic mansion in Casa de Campo.

    After the election, the news died down.

    But then, days before Menendez was about to start leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as chairman, reporters started receiving a 58-page dossier of emails between a Miami FBI agent and a tipster who claimed that some of the prostitutes had been underage.

    “I’m not going to respond to the fallacious allegations of your story,” Menendez told the Daily Caller on Monday when a reporter caught up with him on a train in Washington.

    At the time, Menendez had just stepped into the national spotlight along with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and six other senators who are hammering out a highly watched immigration plan that is the talk of Washington.

    Rubio is one of the few big-name Florida politicians who has not received campaign money from the Melgens, who have contributed to Sen. Bill Nelson and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Garcia, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, among others.

    The FBI would not comment on the emails, and the agent, Regino Chavez, did not return calls or emails. But sources familiar with the investigation told The Miami Herald that the emails are real.

    The emails from agent Chavez show that he tried to find out what happened. But the tipster, who went by the name “Peter Williams,” refused to talk to him by telephone or meet him face to face.

    Chavez contacted the tipster Aug.1, 2012, after the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington referred the case to the FBI. The tipster would not meet or speak by phone to CREW or to an investigative reporter, either.

    “As far as the information you have provided, we have been able to confirm most of it,” Chavez wrote on Sept. 12. “We know that you are providing accurate information.”

    But it is not clear what that specific information is because Chavez was unable to interview the alleged prostitutes. Over the months, Chavez tried to meet or speak with the tipster, but had no luck.

    Then, on Nov. 1, the agent wrote the tipster again and drew attention to the Daily Caller interview with the alleged prostitutes.

    “I think we are at the point where you and I need to communicate over the phone so that we can move faster,” he wrote.

    No luck.

    Amid the suspicious circumstances of the complaints, Democrats have tried to characterize the reports about Menendez and Melgen as a right-wing smear job.

    Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid refused to comment on the possibility of an FBI investigation when he was asked Tuesday about the case.

    Said Reid: “Always consider the source. All anyone here has to look at is the source where this comes from.”

    Tuesday night’s raid, however, shows that there is at least an investigation tied to Menendez’s longtime friend and ally.


    Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/29/3207543/fbi-raids-west-palm-beach-office.html#storylink=cpy
  2. Standard memberbill718
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    30 Jan '13 23:16
    Originally posted by sasquatch672
    Bye Bye, Bob Menendez!

    FBI raids West Palm Beach office of doctor tied to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez

    The FBI raided the office of a South Florida eye doctor who last year was accused of providing prostitutes to longtime ally Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat.


    New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez

    Fullsize previous | nextImage 1 of ...[text shortened]... ttp://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/29/3207543/fbi-raids-west-palm-beach-office.html#storylink=cpy
    Maybe Bob Menendez (D) and John Ensign (R), Larry Craig (R), and Ted Stevens (R) should all get together and go bowling. Might be an interesting game!😀
  3. Standard membersasquatch672
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    30 Jan '13 23:21
    Originally posted by bill718
    Maybe Bob Menendez (D) and John Ensign (R), Larry Craig (R), and Ted Stevens (R) should all get together and go bowling. Might be an interesting game!😀
    Those guys are already out. Chris Christie will appoint a Senator to replace him. He won't want to declare open war on his own party by appointing a Democrat, because he's thinking about running in 2016.

    If he does go crazy and appoint a Democrat, a guy I wouldn't mind is Rob Andrews (NJ-1st). Rob's a good guy.
  4. Standard membersh76
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    30 Jan '13 23:58
    Originally posted by sasquatch672
    Those guys are already out. Chris Christie will appoint a Senator to replace him. He won't want to declare open war on his own party by appointing a Democrat, because he's thinking about running in 2016.

    If he does go crazy and appoint a Democrat, a guy I wouldn't mind is Rob Andrews (NJ-1st). Rob's a good guy.
    He won't appoint a Dem. Senatorial appointments across party lines are unheard of, even in a dark blue/red state.
  5. Dublin Ireland
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    31 Jan '13 00:02
    Originally posted by sasquatch672
    Those guys are already out. Chris Christie will appoint a Senator to replace him. He won't want to declare open war on his own party by appointing a Democrat, because he's thinking about running in 2016.

    If he does go crazy and appoint a Democrat, a guy I wouldn't mind is Rob Andrews (NJ-1st). Rob's a good guy.
    In France if you have an affair you get re elected, 😉.
  6. Standard membersasquatch672
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    31 Jan '13 00:11
    Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
    In France if you have an affair you get re elected, 😉.
    With a higher margin no doubt. I think hiring underage prostitutes goes outside of most people's comfort zone though, even in France.
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    31 Jan '13 04:29
    Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
    In France if you have an affair you get re elected, 😉.
    Worked good for William Jefferson Clinton as well. His right hand man gave it a try with a hotel worker and when she said no he hunched on her anyway.
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