Criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Phil Holloway bluntly called Democratic New Jersey Sen. Robert “Bob” Menendez “an idiot” over his explanation of his alleged bribery scheme.
The Southern District of New York charged Menendez and his wife, Nadine, in a three-count indictment related to the senator allegedly accepting bribes. Menendez is accused of accepting including a luxury car, mortgage payments and more than $500,000 in exchange for doing favors on behalf of the government of Egypt.
Holloway mocked the senator for claiming the $480,000 in cash stuffed into “clothing, closets and a safe” were drawn from his personal savings account for emergency purposes.
“Well my top-line thought, Harris, is he’s an idiot. He doesn’t need to go out there and make any statement about the facts of this case,” Holloway said on Fox News’ “The Faulkner Focus” on Monday. “But also, he fails to mention the other things that really link this cash, for example, to criminality. It’s the DNA and it’s the fingerprints that they now have linked to these other allegedly corrupt businessman.”
“So he’s just digging the hole deeper and no reasonable juror is going to believe that anybody, especially one who’s a sophisticated senator, has half a million dollars in cash stuffed in envelopes layin’ around his house and at other places in his home along with all the other things that just paint the picture that these are all ill-gotten gains,” the defense attorney continued. “He really just cannot explain it away by saying, ‘Hey, I just took money out of my savings account’ because of whatever reason, that ‘I don’t trust banks’ or whatever he’s trying to say. It makes no sense whatsoever.” (RELATED: The Details Of Bob Menendez’s Alleged Bribery Scheme Are Outright Cartoonish)
Menendez denied all allegations and blamed racism against Hispanics for the indictment in his Friday statement. He said he is being “falsely accused” of these bribery allegations because of his unwillingness to “back down to the powers that be.”
“Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals,” he said in his Friday statement. “I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent. I have worked every day to repay their trust by fighting to create jobs, strengthen public safety, update infrastructure and reduce costs for New Jersey families.”
Menendez has refused to step down from his seat despite calls from members of his own party for his resignation.