Bob Menendezarrived at a federal prison on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. The New Jersey Democrat and former US senator has been mocked for the crimes as “Gold Bar Bob”, according to his own lawyer.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Menendez was in custody at the Schuylkill federal correctional institution in Minersville, Pennsylvania. The facility has a medium-security prison and a minimum-security prison camp. Given the white-collar nature of his crimes, it is likely he will end up in the camp.
The prison is about 118 miles (190km) west of New York City. It’s home to about 1,200 inmates, including ex-New York City organized crime boss James Coonan and former gas station owner Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, whom the New York Post dubbed “Gas-Station Gotti” for his ruthless, violent ways.
Menendez, 71, maintains his innocence. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected his last-ditch effort to remain free on bail while he fights to get his bribery conviction overturned. A three-judge panel on the second US circuit court of appeals denied his bail motion.
Pleading for leniency, Menendez told a judge at his sentencing in January: “I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions. I’ve done far more good than bad.”
Menendez has also appeared to be angling for a pardon from Donald Trump, aligning himself with the Republican president’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City.
“This process is political and it’s corrupted to the core,” Menendez told reporters after his January sentencing. “I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
In posts on Tuesday on the social platform X that were later deleted, Menendez criticized prosecutors as politically motivated and opposed to his foreign policy views – and praised Trump for “rising above the law fare”.
Menendez resigned last year after he was convicted of selling his clout for bribes. FBI agents found $480,000 in cash in his home, some of it stuffed inside boots and jacket pockets, along with gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Menendez performed corrupt favors forNew Jerseybusiness owners, including protecting them from criminal investigations, helping in business deals with foreign powers and meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials before helping Egypt access $300m in US military aid.
Menendez, who once chaired the Senate foreign relations committee, resigned a month after his conviction. He had been in the Senate since 2006.
Two business owners were also convicted last year along with Menendez.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, was convicted in April of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes from the business owners. Her sentencing is scheduled for 11 September.
At his sentencing, Menendez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants emerged from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream” – rising from mayor of Union City, New Jersey, to decades in Congress – before his conviction “rendered him a national punchline”.
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” the defense lawyer Adam Fee told the judge.