(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The plot thickens: Sen. Menendez's wife gifted new car after killing a pedestrian while driving [1] [] Date: 2023-10-05 Pressure on indicted Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey to resign is likely to intensify after news reports revealed that his soon-to-be wife killed a pedestrian while driving in 2018. She then reportedly needed a new car and received a Mercedes-Benz convertible from an Egyptian-American businessman. The car is listed in the federal indictment against the senator and his wife among the bribes the couple allegedly received that also included cash, gold bars, and payment toward a home mortgage. The New Jersey newspaper, The Record, reported: Nadine Arslanian Menendez, federally indicted in a bribery scheme with her husband, Sen. Bob Menendez, struck and killed a man while driving her Mercedes-Benz on Main Street in Bogota (N.J.) in December 2018. Details about the crash, which unfolded on the evening of Dec. 12, 2018, are outlined in a Bogota Police Department report obtained by NorthJersey.com and The Record. Arslanian — who began dating Menendez in February 2018 and married the senator in October 2020 — was not charged in the incident. A month after the crash, according to an indictment brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Arslanian was texting Wael Hana, an Egyptian American businessman also indicted in the bribery scheme, about her lack of a car. Hana later provided her with a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible, the indictment says. The Record reported that Arslanian told police that she did not see the man stepping out in front of her car. The crash left Richard Koop, 49, dead in front of his home. The newspaper quoted from the Bogota Police Department investigation report: “Ms. Arslanian was not at fault in this crash. Mr. Koop was jaywalking and did not cross the street at an intersection or in a marked crosswalk.” Sheri Breen, the attorney for Koop’s estate, told The Record that a surveillance video from a nearby business showed that Arslanian “moved her car around his (Koop’s) body as he was lying in the road and she did not come to his aid or to even check on him.” Menendez was away in Washington, D.C., on the night of the accident, according to Senate voting records. The New York Times reported: What happened that night in the borough of Bogota outside New York City was not reported for years, leaving witnesses and Mr. Koop’s family to wonder if the fatal collision was deliberately kept quiet. But now, nearly five years later, the episode adds a startling dimension to a scandal that has shaken American politics, and raised new questions about the senator at its center. The revelation helps fill in an important narrative gap around one of the most blatant bribes alleged in a 39-page federal indictment unveiled last month against Ms. Menendez, her powerful husband and three businessmen. Prosecutors said in those charging papers that Ms. Menendez needed a car so badly after a December 2018 “accident” that the senator, a Democrat, was willing to try to suppress an unrelated criminal prosecution for a New Jersey businessman in exchange for a $60,000 Mercedes convertible. The fatal collision with Mr. Koop on Dec. 12 matches prosecutors’ terse description of the December 2018 crash. The Times reported that its review of records about the accident “raise additional questions about the inquiry into the collision” and whether Sen. Menendez “may have made an attempt to intervene.” The police report indicated that Aslanian was never tested for drugs or alcohol on the scene, and that a man who identified himself as a retired police officer from a nearby town was heard saying he came to the scene as “a favor” to a friend whose wife knew Aslanian, according to The Times. The Times said that there is nothing “explicitly noted” in the police reports and videos it reviewed “to indicate that officers knew of the driver’s relationship with the senator.” Menendez, 69, and his wife, 56, have both pleaded not-guilty to the bribery-related charges in the federal indictment. Menendez stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he has refused to resign from the Senate despite calls by at least 31 Democratic senators and New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy that he do so. Rep. Andy Kim has already declared that he will mount a primary challenge should Menendez seek reelection in 2024. HuffPost reported that a new poll of New Jersey Democrats, commissioned by the liberal think tank Data for Progress, shows that 48% of those surveyed would pick Kim in a primary, while 9% would vote to reelect Menendez. The poll also found that 40% of voters are uncertain who they would vote for. In a more crowded race, Menendez would receive only 6% of the vote, according to another poll question which listed a wider field of possible candidates. The results show Kim with 27%, Rep. Mikie Sherrill with 20% (who ruled out a run on Friday), and other potential candidates each receiving 6% or less. But the poll showed that an overwhelming 78% of the respondents think Menendez should resign. Menendez told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, after details about the 2018 car crash were reported: “That was a tragic accident,” adding that “obviously, we think of the family.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2197488/-News-reports-Sen-Menendez-s-wife-received-new-Mercedes-after-killing-a-pedestrian-while-driving?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/