With the End Apparently Nigh, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is Going Out in Style

As his trial for alleged corruption proceeds and with his days in public office apparently dwindling to a close, Menendez has been spending huge sums of political money to live like a king.

Photograph of Robert Menendez, his then paramour and now wife Nadine Menendez, and two alleged agents of the Egyptian government taken during FBI surveillance conducted in 2019. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Despite confronting virtually impossible odds of holding on to his senate seat due to rock-bottom popularity in his home state of New Jersey and the threat of a long stretch in the federal pen on bribery charges, Bob Menendez continues to insist he will be legally exonerated and salvage his political career. “I look forward to proving my innocence,” Menendez declared on May 12, a few days before his trial got underway in a Manhattan federal court, where he’s accused of taking lavish payoffs from agents of the Egyptian and Qatari governments in exchange for advancing their respective interests in Washington.

Like all criminal defendants, guilty and innocent alike, the senator has grounds to hope the jury will side with him at the conclusion of his ongoing trial, even if Menendez, unlike any criminal defendant I know of, was the target of an FBI raid that turned up more than $600,000 in cash, gold bars and other undeclared assets stashed in clothing, closets, and other curious places at his home. However, a review of Menendez’s most recent disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission show he’s rapidly burning through his campaign reserves – and spending heavily on the likes of wining and dining, luxury travel, and entertainment relative to expenditures related to holding on to his senate seat – which makes clear he knows that whether he’s convicted in court or not, he’s finished politically and decided he may as well go out in style. 

A notorious tightwad when it comes to spending from his own pocket, Menendez got the diamond engagement ring he gave his now wife and co-defendant Nadine Menendez from one of the suspected Egyptian government agents accused of bribing him, who allegedly paid for it with money allocated for payoffs to the senator, and he proposed to her during an overseas junket paid in full or part by the US government. When he’s paying with donor money, on the other hand, Menendez unbuckles cash like a drunken sailor, which has long allowed him to lead a millionaire’s lifestyle.

As I reported in the New Republic last December, Menendez dished out about $4.3 million from his various campaign treasuries and New Millennium Leadership PAC for food, booze, catering, air fare, hotels, and other lifestyle enhancers between 1993 and 2023. That works out to an average of about $200,000 per year, well above Menendez’s current annual salary as a senator of $174,000. 

Using political cash to pay for creature comforts has become so routine that many lawmakers treat it as a perk of holding office, particularly as major donors don’t mind – indeed, most approve it because they’re not making campaign contributions in hopes of improving the quality of US democracy, but to purchase of political leaders who’ll do their bidding – and neither the FEC nor any other agency with oversight authority closely monitors the practice. In a rare rebuke, the laughingstock House Ethics Committee reported last November that subsequently expelled Congressman George Santos spent $40,000 in campaign money on OnlyFans, botox treatment and trips to the Hamptons and Atlantic City.

When it comes to the art of living well on donor money, however, few Washington politicians can match Menendez’s historic level of excellence, and he’s attained new heights of greatness, if that’s the right word, since the FBI’s first raid on his home – at least in connection with the foreign bribery case, so as to exclude prior raids related to charges he took payoffs from Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, which led to trial that concluded seven years ago in a hung jury – in June 2022. That’s an especially impressive and noteworthy achievement because donations to Menendez have dropped sharply as his legal and political travails have metastasized.

Upon reviewing polls a few months ago that showed he was hopelessly behind his competitors in the New Jersey Democratic Senate primary, which was held three days ago and won by Congressman Andy Kim, Menendez abandoned the race and announced he would run as an independent in this November’s general election. His prospects appear grim, with recent surveys showing only five percent of his constituents believe he’s innocent of the bribery charges and a vast majority want him to end his campaign. 

Nothing, though, has dampened Menendez’s passion to have fun and adventure when he’s tapping his political treasuries to cover the costs. During the 16 months from January 1, 2023, the start of the current election cycle, to April 30, 2024, the date of the latest publicly available FEC data, Senator Menendez dispensed at least $452,000 for leisure and recreational activities, an average monthly burn rate of $28,250. At that clip, Menendez’s estimated annual burn rate hits an astonishing $339,000, roughly 70 percent higher than his pace between 1993 and 2023. 

The top five categories of lifestyle enhancers Menendez splurged on during the present cycle, listed in ascending order, were:

No. 5: Event Rental Space & Related Expenditures ($32,000)

These expenditures paid for fundraisers and other ostensibly political events, but I’ve only included costs here for events that provided Menendez with a good dose of rest and relaxation, such as three affairs for top tier donors he hosted last year at the oceanfront Ritz-Carlton Reserve at Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico. Combined expenditures for rental space, food and beverages totaled $15,000.

A view from the grounds of the Ritz-Carlton Reserve at Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico. Photo from the resort’s website.

An avid golfer, Menendez spent some $9,000 for four events held last summer – two each at Caves Valley Golf Club and Kenwood Golf and Country Club, both in Maryland – where he and his political donors and associates were able to spend quality time on the links. The rest of the money included here were payments to rent space from companies that apparently hosted fundraisers for Menendez, among them the private equity firm Apollo Management Holdings and the hedge fund Elliott Management, whose respective founders, Marc Rowan and Paul Singer, are GOP megadonors and Zionist zealots who contribute to Menendez because he’s traditionally been the most influential Democrat in congress who’s as ardently pro-Israel as they are; and BGR Group, one of the most powerful lobbying and PR firms in Washington.

No. 4: Air Travel ($47,000)

Menendez loves to travel and in the past has been a frequent flyer to Miami, perhaps his most preferred destination, Beverly Hills, and other popular vacation spots. It’s hard to pin down the route of most of his recent travels, but United Airlines has been the primary beneficiary of the senator’s largesse during the current election cycle, netting about three-quarters of the total amount in the category. The remainder was split between American, Jet Blue, Southwest, and Delta, in that order.  

No. 3: Ground Transportation ($50,000)

About $20,000 of the total expenditures in this category went to Amtrak for transportation between New Jersey and Washington, presumably as a first-class passenger on its Acela line, which Menendez has said he frequently rides on. More eye catching is the $18,000 Menendez paid from his political accounts to Carey International, which offers clients options such as a stretch limousine with wet bar, moonroof, and tinted windows and luxury sedans made by Mercedes, Lexus, and Audi, all that come with a chauffeur.

Menendez spent about another $5,000 or so for Uber, Lyft, and taxi service. Other sizeable amounts went to pay for gasoline and $452.61 monthly for a lease on a “campaign car.”

No. 2: Wining & Dining ($130,000)

Menendez relentlessly billed his political treasuries for food and beverages, ranging from a charge of $11.86 at a Dunkin Donuts to $1,147.00 at Succotash, a Washington restaurant that serves shrimp and grits, fried chicken and waffles, and other southern specialties, and topping out at $11,184.87 for catering for a fundraiser at Morton's The Steakhouse in downtown DC, Menendez’s favorite restaurant.

For comment peasants such as myself, who diligently use their CVS coupons and have pedestrian financial concerns such as paying rent and finding a cheaper cable TV provider, Morton’s is prohibitively expensive. The 16-ounce New York Strip, which Menendez has said is his first choice on the menu, is priced at $64, twin lobster tails at $99, and a jigger of brandy, which I believe the senator and an associate were drinking one night when I saw there there last year when working on the story for the New Republic as it was served in a snifter, starts at $20 and goes sharply up from there. 

As Menendez dines there courtesy of his political accounts, he can afford to eat there whenever he likes, which indirectly led to his current legal problems. During testimony at his trial earlier this week, it emerged that two undercover FBI investigators went to Morton’s on May 21, 2019 to eavesdrop “on a trio of Egyptian men...including one who was the subject of their investigation,” as was recounted in a June 4 Politico story, when Menendez and his then sweetheart Nadine walked in and joined them at their table. Towards the end of the evening, one of the investigators overheard Nadine say to one of the Egyptians, “What else can the love of my life do for you?”, which allegedly led the FBI to open its investigation of the senator.

As of early 2021, Menendez had billed his political committees about $300,000 for meals and catering at Morton’s, the New York Post reported that year. That figure had soared by another $74,000 when my New Republic story ran late last year, and between now and then climbed by about another $7,000, bringing his career spending at the downtown Washington branch of Morton’s to approximately $384,000.

Of the combined $130,000 Menendez spent on meals during the first 16 months of this election cycle, about $40,000 paid for tabs racked up at Morton’s. Menendez also spent copious amounts at dozens of other high end restaurants, including Charlie Palmer Steak, Truluck's Ocean's Finest Seafood & Crab, and the French eatery Bistro Bis in the capitol, and Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills and Caffe Abbracci in Miami during his frequent excursions around the country.

The entrance to Spago, where Menendez has dined during travel to Beverly Hills. Congressional membership has its privileges. Phot from Spagos’s Instagram page.

No. 1:  Hotel & Resort Lodging ($137,000)

Like all connoisseurs of the finer things in life, Menendez appreciates lodging at a level that can only be found at the very best, most refined luxury hotels and resorts. During the current election cycle, the senator has shacked up at the Biltmore in Coral Gables, which features lush tropical landscaping and a 23,000-square-foot pool that make it “one of the most luxurious destinations in the world,” according to a Miami tourism website; the Condado Vanderbilt in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s first luxury hotel that’s now owned by US billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson; and at Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton properties in Washington and elsewhere.

The lion’s share of the money Menendez spent on lodging – about $96,000 – went to  the Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico, which is situated on the site of an estate formerly owned by Laurance Rockefeller, the son of John D. Rockefeller. “With its serene coastline, private residences, spa sanctuary and a harmonious sense of place that blends masterfully into the natural surroundings, Dorado Beach...invites guests to arrive spellbound and depart speechless,” states the resort’s website. Most of the senator’s outlays at the property were part of the cost of fundraisers he held there, including an event last November that bombed as a result of Menendez having been indicted on bribery charges a few weeks earlier. 

Senator Menendez also used political money to pay bills to florists of about $5,000 and to cover purchases of roughly $9,300 worth of “office supplies and equipment,” almost all of the latter since late last year and more than half of that to Apple, which likely went for iPhones, laptops, or other electronics that he, or whoever he bought the items for, will almost certainly hold on to whether his political career comes to an end this year as appears to be all but certain or were somehow to continue. 

Sizeable amounts of cash were also deployed to cover expenditures for goods and services that aren’t classic lifestyle enhancers – and I didn’t include them when toting up Menendez’s spending on such purposes – but were greatly beneficial to him and show how he, and other Washington lawmakers, are free to treat their campaign treasuries like personal bank accounts. By far the biggest quantity was some $2.5 million in fees to law firms, a good deal of which is related to the criminal charges he faces, and numerous examples of lesser amounts, such as a combined $43,000 he dispatched to his legal defense fund, another political account he controls, and to his son, Congressman Rob Menendez, who was elected to his old House seat in 2022. 

And who can blame Menendez for his recent successful effort to  shatter his personal records for spending political money on creature comforts?  Even if he skates on the bribery charges, It would take a miracle for him to win reelection this fall, so before long he’s likely to be either housed at a federal prison or, in a best case scenario, reduced to paying for fine food and drink, travel, and other splurges like an ordinary commoner, not with a magic congressional credit card he can pull out whenever the urge strikes and never be billed for.