While mainstream media outlets continue devoting endless coverage to the criminal charges being pursued against former President Donald Trump, they seem to be dutifully ignoring the scandals and controversies surrounding prominent Democrats.
This has been evident by the dearth of reporting about evidence of Biden family corruption in recent months, and a more recent glaring example involves U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).
Do you think the Biden DOJ is treating Republicans the same way they're treating Democrats like Hunter Biden and Bob Menendez? pic.twitter.com/PJrKnE7ewM
— Shirley Maia-Cusick (@Shirley4senate) August 2, 2023
The New Jersey Democrat is currently the subject of a Justice Department ethics probe related to allegations that he or his wife traded political favors for gifts. He previously faced a similar accusation, evading federal criminal prosecution in 2018 but warranting a formal rebuke from the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee.
“The criminal system, however, neither enforces nor supplants the Senate’s rules or standards of conduct, and the Committee’s action stands independent from that result,” the panel wrote in its decision.
That earlier case involved gifts he reportedly received from a longtime friend over the course of six years and the ethics committee ordered him to make restitution. At the time, it had been six years since the ethics committee had issued such a rebuke against a senator.
A Senate Republican campaign spokesperson argued that Menendez should be voted out of office later that same year, asserting: “Bob Menendez’s scandalous conduct laid out in this letter should outrage every New Jersey voter.”
Nevertheless, he came out on top in his bid to secure another term in the chamber.
Now, Menendez is facing a similar probe and, despite the fact that The New York Times reported on the events in neighboring New Jersey, network news broadcasts omitted the development from their coverage.
Public details of the current investigation are sparse, but the Times indicates that the probe is focused, at least in part, on the Menendezes’ relationship with Wael Hana, who was somehow able to secure an exclusive arrangement to authorize food imported to Egypt that had been prepared according to Islamic law.
Earlier this year, Menendez reacted to an “official inquiry” by establishing a legal defense fund, as spokesperson Michael Soliman explained at the time.
“Sen. Menendez is confident that this official inquiry will be successfully closed, but as it is still unresolved, he will be opening a separate legal defense fund so as not to drain any further campaign funds,” Soliman said.
