FBI investigating Sen. Menendez for underage sex with prostitutes

Washington – Sex, lies, videotape, and the U.S. Senate. Two women claim Bob Menendez paid them for sex, even though one of them was then just 16 years old.

Documents have come to light that reveal that Senator Bob Menendez, the 59-year-old junior Senator from New Jersey, is being looked at by the FBI for possibly having underage sex with a prostitute, during an undisclosed trip to the Dominican Republic. A trip that he is alleged to have taken with long time campaign donor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, according to the Daily Caller.

Menendez was appointed to serve as New Jersey’s Senator upon the election of Jon Corzine as Governor in 2006. Senator Bob Menendez who is about to gain more power in Washington D.C., serves alongside of Frank Lautenberg. Menendez is only the sixth Latino to serve in the U.S. Senate, he is also a former Mayor of Union City, member of the New Jersey General Assembly and Senate, as well as a former Congressman.

Menendez is expected to serve as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, replacing Senator John Kerry, who has been named Secretary of State by President Obama.

Carrie Levine, a research director at CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) was first alerted of Menendez’s alleged indiscretions abroad last year in April.

Under Senate ethic rules Menendez is to report any travel paid for by a third-party that exceeds $335. His financial disclosures since the 1990’s as well as his most recent one from 2011, make no mention of any trip paid for by ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.

Records show Melgen, has given over $30,000 to various politicians and the DNC this past year alone. Including $5,000 to Senate candidate, and former Iraq War General Ricardo Sanchez, as well as $4,000 to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. Salomon Melgen also donated $2,400 to Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

One of the women alleged to have slept with Bob Menendez has given hand written testimony of her encounters with the Democratic Senator from New Jersey. The source who spoke to CREW as well as ABC producer, Rhonda Schwartz stated: “”I have in my possession the original (testimony) written in her own hand. She is 19 now, but took part in private parties with Senator Menendez being only 16.””

The prostitute in her hand written testimony stated that she was sure that it was Senator Bob Menendez whom she had engaged in sexual relations with, recalling specifically one visit he made to her since it was the month of her 17th birthday. The self described escort is also said to have given an exact description of Salomon Melgen’s home in Caso de Campo, a Ponderosa-style seaside resort in the Dominican Republic.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan has stated that her organization passed on their findings to law enforcement. ““On July 17, 2012, CREW sent letters to the Department of Justice and the FBI requesting an investigation into this matter,” Sloan states in an email to the Daily Caller. Sloan went on to say one letter was addressed to “the Director of the Washington Field Office.””

If the allegations are true, Bob Menendez still owes the women in the Dominican Republic $800. Both women interviewed stated they agreed to sleep with Senator Menendez for $500 each, however the Senator only paid them $200 altogether.
The women claim to have had sex with the divorced Senator around Easter of 2012. The Daily Caller looked into Menendez’s schedule for that time period and found that he had no public events scheduled. However airport records do show that Salomon Melgen’s private plane, did in fact leave Florida where he is an eye doctor. It landed at Teterboro Airport, near Union City where Menendez maintains a home according to government financial records, the plane later landed in the Dominican Republic. Two days later the same plane returned from an airport in Caso de Campo.

Emails which have only now come to the surface show that in the final months of 2012 an FBI Special Agent, with the Miami field office had been assigned to the case. “”As far as the information that you have provided, we have been able to confirm most of it.” FBI Agent Chavez emailed the source of the information.”

It is important to note that prostitution is legal in the Dominican Republic, however the PROTECT Act has made it illegal to engage in sexual activity overseas, that is illegal in the United States. Then Congressman Menendez voted for the legislation in 2003, when it had made its way out of conference committee.

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