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Appeals are promised in Menendez case

By: Kristie Cattafi
and Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Former Senator Bob Menendez and his co-defendants have vowed to appeal their sentences and hope to remain out of prison during the process.
...... Menendez was sentenced Wednesday [01/29/2025] to 11 years in federal prison, and his co-defendants, Edgewater developer Fred Daibes and Egyptian American businessman Wael Hana, were sentenced respectively to seven years in prison and more than eight years in prison. Dabies was fined $1.75 million; Hana was fined $1.3 million.
..... Menendez, a Democrat who repented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate for nearly two decades, was convicted last July [2024] on 16 federal felony counts related to a bribery scheme in a trial held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Menendez resigned his seat in August. [2024]
..... Memendez anmd his wife Nadine Arslanian Meneidez, were found to have received, among other things, cash, gold bars and a luxury car in exchange for his using his political influence.
..... Menendez has already filed a bond request to remain out f prison during the apples process. Next week, Hana and Daibies plan to file similar requests and file appeals.
..... On Tuesday, [01/28/2025] attorneys for Menendez filed motions that outlined their plans to appeal the case, regardless of the outcome of the former senator's sentencing.
..... At his sentencing hearing, Daibes told U.S. Judge District Judge Sidney Stein through tears, "I can't believe I find myself in this position."
..... Daibes sealskin the judge for home confinement so he could help care for his 20year-old autistic son, but the judge sentence him to prison and the fine.
.... "I wish people would think of the impact on family before engaging in criminal activity," Stein said. "You bribed Senator Menendez a number of times ... Your fingerprints were on envelopes of cash, and god bars were traced to you.
..... Daibes is still waiting for his sentencing in a federal bank fraud case in New Jessey.
..... After Menendez was sentenced, he slammed the Southern District of New York and accused prosecutors of lying and sharing unredacted evidence with the jury.
..... "President Trump is right," he said after his sentencing. "This process is political and corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up this cesspool and restores integrity to the system."

Hana plans to appeal

..... Hana will file an appeal and hopes to remain out of jail during the process, his attorney, Lawrence Lusberge said outside the courthouse Wednesday. [01/29/2025]
..... Lustberg said the sentencing was the result of an "unfair" trial that reached in "inaccurate resits."
..... Mr. Hana is completely innocent, never bribed anybody at any time, and today [01/29/2025] not only is their a judgment of conviction against him but an excessive sentence," Lustberg said.
..... Hana believes the appeal has "compelling and cutting-edge" legal issues that will allow them to prevail during an appeal. The judge said they can file a motion for bail pending appeal next week.

Likely strategy revealed

..... A day before the sentencing, Menendez's attorneys field a motion for his release pending an appeal. The motion gave a glimpse into Menendez's likely strategy for appeal.
..... In a Tuesday [01/28/2025] filing, Adam Fee, one of Menendez's attorneys wrote to Stein that "it will surprise nobody" that Menendez intends to appeal.
..... The 36-page document said Menendez's legal team intends to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit a "host of weighty questions" that will focus on the speech and debate clause, the parameter of the U.S. Supreme Court's definitional of "official action" in McDonnell v. United States, and the outer bounds of criminal venue.
..... Attorneys for the former senator will also focus on the constitutionality of the first-ever use of the charge of "offers and employees acting as agents of foreign principals" agonist a member of Congress, the motion said.
..... Menedez should be released also because he isn't a danger to anyone or a flight risk, his attorneys said. He intends to participate in his wife's trial and is "committed to vindicating himself on appeal."
..... "If the Senator prevails on even a subset of these issued, he would be entitled to a new trial on all counts,: Fee wrote. "A man should not be sent to prison when reasonable minds can disagree about the legal viability of his convictions. and a lifelong public servant should not be forced to wait out such an appeal from the walls of a federal facility."
..... The speech and debate clause is a form of immunity afforded to members of Congress so they do not have to worry that things they say during legislative actives could implicate them in legal action.
..... The attorney argue that the government's "single most important piece of evidence" was a text Menendez sent to Arslanian Menemdez related to activity prosecutors said he undertook for Hana: "tell will I am going to sign off on this."
..... "The message referenced only a quo, without mention of any quid or pro. And the quo is just the bare legislative act itself," Fee said in the court documents.
..... The U.S. Supreme Court's McDonnell v. United States decision form 2016 defined what an "official act" is. In the Tuesday [01/28/2025] motion, Fee argued that Menendez gave general :advice" that wasn't part of an advisory role and that any "pressure" felt came from his "prominence" and not "nay use or threatened use of the power of his office."
..... "Lots of people - from former officials to popular celebrities - carry :influence' that makes it easier for them to receive a friendly audience," Fee wrote. "But if Uribe had paid former President Bill Clinton or Bruce Springsteen to reach out to [former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal] on his behalf, that obviously would not be federal bribery."

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