What’s Next for Federal Corruption Cases After Bob Menendez?
The New Jersey senator’s mistrial is the highest-profile setback yet for federal prosecutors after a major Supreme Court ruling last year.
A New Jersey jury handed federal prosecutors a serious defeat on Thursday by deadlocking on whether to convict Democratic Senator Bob Menendez after a nine-week bribery trial, an outcome that could signal a rough road ahead for federal efforts to prove public corruption.
At the heart of the case was Menendez’s relationship with Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist and frequent donor to the senator. Prosecutors charged both men with bribery under what they called a “stream of benefits” theory: They contended that—taken together—a flow of gifts and donations to Menendez and a parallel string of senatorial favors to Melgen functioned
