When Taking Bribes, Make Sure The Origin Of The Product Is Not Traceable

When taking bribes, unmarked bills are a good idea, other things can be risky–gold bars, for instance, have serial numbers. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez really should have considered that.

On December 4th, The New York Post reported the following:

Four of the gold bars Sen. Bob Menendez stashed at his home were previously stolen from the businessman accused of bribing the New Jersey Democrat, according to a report. 

The serial numbers on some of the gold found by the FBI during a June 2022 raid on Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs, NJ, home match identifiers that Fred Daibes reported to police after a 2013 armed robbery, according to NBC News

Robbers made off with $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars from Daibes’ Edgewater, NJ, home during the 2013 heist, the outlet reports.

Police later nabbed four suspects and recovered the stolen gold. 

The matching serial numbers indicate that authorities have directly linked at least some of the gold found in Menendez’s home to Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and Menendez fundraiser.

Daibes has been accused of bribing the senator for a series of favors, including help in disrupting a federal prosecution against him. 

“Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes told investigators in 2014 when questioned about the stolen gold. “They’re all stamped … you’ll never see two stamped the same way.”

The article concludes:

Menendez has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has refused to resign from the Senate, despite numerous calls for him to do so, even from fellow Democrats. 

Menendez and his wife are accused of accepting bribes from Daibes in exchange for the senator’s help shielding him from criminal prosecution in a bank fraud case.

The New Jersey Democrat allegedly helped Daibes by recommending President Biden pick Philip Sellinger, who the senator believed would apply a light touch to the case, for the post of New Jersey US attorney. 

If convicted on all charges, Menendez faces up to 45 years in prison.

I guess if you are a Democrat, you just don’t plan on having your house searched or a swat team arrive at six o’clock in the morning.

Down Memory Lane

Yesterday in Washington was horrible. It was horrible because the Capitol was breached and people killed, but the other casualties of the day were honest, transparent elections and any hope of consistency from our media and elected officials.

Yesterday The Scoop posted an article about an event people may have forgotten.

The article notes:

When far-left radical communists protesting against the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court took over the Hart Senate Office Building atrium on Capitol Hill on October 4, 2018, leftists on Twitter PRAISED them.

The article includes the following screenshot:

That was then, this is now.

Now let’s take another trip down memory lane to July 2, 2020. The Federalist reported the following:

Thursday afternoon, Democrats killed a resolution aimed at curbing mob violence. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the bill after a man in Utah was mobbed then shot by a group of rioters. The non-binding resolution offered a statement of support for peaceful protesters and law enforcement who do their job well, while condemning violence and the desecration of monuments across the country.

“A non-binding resolution is the tiniest first step of a response,” Lee read as he introduced it. “We need to do much, much more… but in this divided political moment,… showing that Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats are able to speak with one voice against woke mob violence and in defense of equal justice and civic peace would be a welcome step.”

The resolutions itself states that the country was “founded on universal principles of freedom, justice, and human equality.” It also acknowledged that “throughout our nation’s history, Americans have struggled to realize those ideals … but nonetheless made greater progress toward them than any nation on earth.”

The resolution was immediately attacked. The article reports:

The intended bipartisan resolution swiftly ran into problems. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) spoke directly after Lee to kill the bill. “The resolution reeks of supremacism. Reeks of supremacist views. And it seeks to mischaracterize overwhelmingly peaceful protests across the nation.”

Menendez then offered to support the resolution on one condition: if it condemned President Trump. He stated that if a sentence was added condemning “politicians who incite violence, especially President Trump,” the resolution would be acceptable. He then attacked the president for retweeting a video of two homeowners pointing firearms at a mob that stormed the gates to their private neighborhood.

What happened yesterday was tragic, but those in Congress and in the media need to look in the mirror before blaming others.