{"id":24878,"date":"2024-03-15T03:29:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T08:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=24878"},"modified":"2024-03-15T03:29:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T08:29:48","slug":"judge-rejects-sen-menendezs-legislative-immunity-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=24878","title":{"rendered":"Judge rejects Sen. Menendez\u2019s legislative immunity claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A federal judge has rejected Sen.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/bob-menendez\/\"><u>Bob Menendez\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.J.) claims that he has legislative immunity, and therefore cannot be prosecuted in the initial four conspiracy charges against the New Jersey lawmaker.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein in Manhattan&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/67819346\/252\/united-states-v-menendez\/\"><u>ruled Thursday<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;that the embattled senator cannot evade prosecution based on what he does in the legislative realm as a sitting lawmaker in the upper chamber.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Menendez claimed he could not be prosecuted because of the Constitution\u2019s Speech or Debate Clause. Stein rejected that claim.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Court rejects Menendez\u2019s argument in full, finding that none of the allegations in the S2 Indictment regarding the U.S. Attorney Scheme are protected by the Speech or Debate Clause,\u201d Stein wrote on Thursday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Stein also shut down the senator\u2019s claim in the indictment that it violates the separation of power doctrine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese cases strongly support the Government\u2019s position that enforcement of Section 219 against a Member of Congress is not barred by the separation of powers doctrine,\u201d Stein wrote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The trial has been set for May 6.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this week, the senator&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/4523721-bob-menendez-federal-bribery-charges\/\"><u>pleaded not guilty<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;to a dozen new charges accusing him and his wife of obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/4533720-judge-rejects-sen-menendezs-legislative-immunity-claim\/\">Thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge has rejected Sen.&nbsp;Bob Menendez\u2019s\u2002(D-N.J.) claims that he has legislative immunity, and therefore cannot be prosecuted in the initial four conspiracy charges against the New Jersey lawmaker.&nbsp; U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein in Manhattan&nbsp;ruled Thursday&nbsp;that the embattled senator cannot evade prosecution based on what he does in the legislative realm as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5604,4208,27201,3506],"class_list":["post-24878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dismissal","tag-federal-judge","tag-legislative-immunity","tag-senator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24880,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24878\/revisions\/24880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}