Senator Menendez was indicted once before. Here's a history of his legal woes

Sen. Robert Menendez, indicted Friday on corruption charges, has long been a target of authorities but has never been convicted of a crime.

The latest indictment says the senior senator from New Jersey allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble.

Bribes allegedly included cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, and a Mercedes-Benz. Menendez's wife — Nadine Arslanian Menendez — was also indicted.

The three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — have been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.

First Menendez indictment

Menendez was also indicted a decade ago. A 2017 investigation probed ties between Menendez and his longtime friend and donor Salomon Melgen. They stood trial in federal court in connection with alleged favors given to Melgen after he paid for trips and expenses for Menendez.

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In that case, Menendez was accused of taking campaign donations and lavish trips from Melgen, a south Florida ophthalmologist. Menendez denied that the benefits from Melgen were bribes, and said the gifts came from a longtime personal friend. The senator's trial ended in a mistrial after that jury voted 10-2 for acquittal. Prosecutors eventually chose not to retry the case.

Melgen was separately convicted of Medicare fraud but was pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

Collecting rent from a group that got federal aid

In 2006, he was under investigation by then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who later became governor, on suspicion of steering federal funds to a local nonprofit, but prosecutors closed the case without filing charges.

The issue in question was if it was a conflict of interest for Menendez to collect over $300,000 in rent on a property he owned from a group that receives federal aid. Menendez said the House Ethics Committee at the time told him it wasn’t. The property was a three-story brick house in Union City he owned which was rented to the nonprofit North Hudson Community Action Corp.

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“Bob Menendez is either engulfed in corruption or he is oblivious to it. Either way he is unfit to serve New Jersey in the United States Senate,” State Sen. Tom Kean Jr. said at the time.

Kean maintained that Menendez took advantage of that organization in Congress. “He secured millions of federal funding for the organization tenant, effectively steering hundreds of thousands of dollars, taxpayers dollars, to his wallet in his role as landlord.”

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In 2011, the investigation was closed without any charges. Menendez shot back regarding the "anonymous complaints" that spurred the investigation.

"I'm not going to tolerate it this time," Menendez said. "People either have to ante up and put their names to things, or I'm going to take vigorous action against anyone who tries to impugn my reputation and does it without putting their name on there."

Illegal campaign donations

In 2012, the year Menendez won a second term as senator, a campaign donor from Franklin Lakes, Joseph Bigica, admitted to federal authorities he made illegal contributions to the senator. Menendez said he was a victim and donated the money to charities.

Menendez was the largest individual recipient of Bigica donations, accepting $46,900. In 2005, Bigica threw a party for Menendez at the Borgota hotel during the League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City. Menendez was a congressman at the time, but considered to be the top candidate to replace Sen. Jon Corzine.

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In 2011, Menendez said if Bigica was found to have done something wrong he would return the $16,300 Bigica and his family donated in that election cycle. At the time, Menendez said he had known Bigica for "some time" and said he knew Bigica represented several public entities, "but not because of me."

In 2013, a federal investigation revealed that the developers of the massive Meadowlands retail and entertainment complex now called American Dream were reportedly asked to contribute $50,000 to Menendez's campaign fund allegedly in return for the senator's help in getting permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Federal authorities did not pursue the accusation.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Sen. Menendez was indicted before. See the history of his legal woes