(USNewsMag.com) – A former judge for the Superior Court of New Jersey says that disgraced Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez could spend the rest of his life behind bars if he’s convicted of the serious charges he’s currently facing after his initial indictment was rewritten last week.
After indicting Menendez earlier this month, federal prosecutors have now rewritten and resubmitted the indictment against the senator and his wife on October 12, charging them with conspiring to have Menendez act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government.
Andrew Napolitano, a former judge for the New Jersey Superior Court, appeared on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” on Friday and told host Rob Finnerty that Menendez was “charged with conspiracy to be a foreign agent” and now of “being a foreign agent,” which Napolitano noted is “a radical difference.” The former judge said the way the government “crafted” the indictment “was brilliant” because proving a conspiracy is “far easier” than proving “actual agency.”
Napolitano said the government would have to transport foreign agents from Egypt to New York City to testify against the senator in order “to prove actual agency,” which “would materially disrupt” foreign relations between the US and Egypt, which they want to avoid. The former judge then said that, at 69 years old, Menendez is facing “the rest of his life in jail” if convicted.
The new indictment supersedes the previous one. The only difference is the additional charge of “conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.”
Weeks before, Menendez’s wife and the former chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations were both accused of taking bribes from three businessmen in New Jersey in exchange for the senator’s influence. Both have pleaded not guilty. Over $500 thousand in cash, gold bars, and luxury items were discovered by the FBI in a raid on the senator’s residence.
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