Bob Menendez Officially Convicted Felon After Gold Bar Bribery Scheme

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was found guilty on all counts Tuesday in a sprawling, nine-week trial that charged the 70-year-old Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman for accepting envelopes of cash and gold bars as bribes while acting as a middle man between local real estate moguls and foreign governments.

The New Jersey Democrat and his wife were accused last year of acting as foreign agents for Egypt, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of flashy gifts in exchange for Menendez’s “power and influence to protect and enrich” the businessmen and government of Egypt.

In a superseding indictment filed in January, Menendez was also accused of other corruption-related charges, including allegedly taking bribes from Qatar in an attempt to help a New Jersey real estate developer secure a multimillion-dollar investment from a company tied to the Middle Eastern country and collecting lavish gifts in exchange for his handiwork.

Evidence in the trial included a set of gold bars stamped with the name “Menendez,” with serial numbers matching those reportedly owned by one of the senator’s alleged bribers, New Jersey real estate tycoon Fred Daibes.

Menendez had appeared hopeful Monday before the verdict was delivered.

“It’s obvious that the government’s case is not as simple as they made it to be,” Menendez told the Associated Press from outside the courthouse. “It’s not as simple as they made it to be. The jury’s finding that out.”

Menendez had refused to resign from the race for his Senate seat, but left the door open to run for reelection as an independent candidate. Tuesday’s verdict potentially pulls the plug on any future chances Menendez has at winning reelection in November.

But the convicted lawmaker’s opponents weren’t celebrating the news.

“This is a sad and somber day for New Jersey and our country,” wrote Representative Andy Kim, the Democratic candidate running for Menendez’s seat, in a statement. “Our public servants should work for the people, and today we saw the people judge Senator Menendez as guilty and unfit to serve.

“I called on Senator Menendez to step down when these charges were first made public, and now that he has been found guilty, I believe the only course of action for him is to resign his seat immediately,” Kim continued. “The people of New Jersey deserve better.”

This story has been updated.

Shortly after the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, creepy tech bros and Tucker Carlson campaigned for J.D. Vance to be Trump’s pick for vice president.

According to Axios, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and billionaires Elon Musk and David Sacks all began a “secret lobbying campaign,” which involved calling Trump to secure Vance’s position as next in line in case there was another attack on Trump’s life.

Carlson told Axios he backed Vance because he was the only top contender that “doesn’t secretly hate Trump, as all the rest of them do. He fundamentally agrees with Trump.” Carlson also noted that the two shared the same values on cutting aid for Ukraine. According to The New York Times, Carlson dissuaded Trump from considering Marco Rubio or other “neocons” aligned with the Fox News ecosystem.

Perhaps the secret lobbying campaign by tech billionaires isn’t a huge surprise. Three years ago, Trump met with Vance for the first time, as he was shepherded by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Despite Vance’s working-class facade, he is a former venture capitalist with strong relationships to those in Silicon Valley. According to Trump-world insiders, Vance’s tech and finance-world connections could also open up doors for GOP fundraising, sweetening the deal.

It seems like that promise is already coming true as the tech bros and crypto-fascists are lining up behind the Trump-Vance ticket. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk plans to donate $45 million per month to the pro-Trump America PAC, and right-wing tech-moguls Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz are pledging to donate as well.

With Trump’s pick of Vance, the growing reactionary tech movement may have secured a seat at the table.

Conservatives seemingly had no problem tapping someone with a history of covering up sexual abuse scandals to deliver the opening remarks at the Republican National Convention.

During the opening prayer Monday night, Archbishop of Milwaukee Jerome Listecki reminded the conference to pray for the “wisdom” to place the nation “above personal interest” and to “respect justice” and “equality before the law.” But that wasn’t always the spiritual leader’s prerogative.

Fourteen years ago, Listecki was caught in the midst of a cover-up within the church, with local outlets underlining how far he had gone to thwart investigations of priests involved in the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal, and how he had even permitted some of the accused—and charged—church leaders to remain in leadership positions.

In 2010, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Listecki claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a church investigation into a La Crosse-area priest who had reportedly been following little boys into water park restrooms—though there was apparently plenty of evidence to criminally investigate that priest, as he was later charged with possession of child pornography.

That same year, Listecki reportedly allowed two retired clergy members who had played prominent roles in the national sex abuse cover-up—Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee and Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati—to lead local liturgies.

When pressed by the Wisconsin Radio Network on why he permitted the members’ continued involvement in the church, Listecki said that Weakland, who had admitted to concealing the rape and molestation of children, should still be celebrated despite being a “lightning rod” within the religious institution.

“Having said that, you know you do talk to some people who talk about some of the good things that he has done,” Listecki told the radio news outlet. “Now, certainly, those good things, a pall is cast upon them because of the direction and leadership he’s given in this area.”

Also in 2010, Listecki took the cover-up a step further, opposing legislation that would have lifted the statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes. He alleged that doing so would bankrupt the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

“This bill will have the effect of doing something that everyone will go out of their way to tell you they don’t want it to do—that is, targeting the Catholic Church,” Listecki said at a public hearing before the state Senate Judiciary Committee that year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A top official with Project 2025 has jumped in on Donald Trump’s effort to look like he’s not at all affiliated with the fascistic blueprint for his potential second term in the White House. Too bad for them, they already said the exact opposite.

Last week, Donald Trump tried desperately to distance himself from Project 2025 after a particularly bloodthirsty comment from Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the plan. Now it seems that the project is taking its lead from Trump. But it’s less than convincing.

Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, worked overtime Monday to distance his brainchild from the former president it was designed for.

“What Democrats [have] said about Project 2025 is probably the greatest misinformation campaign since, I don’t know, the Russia hoax,” Dans said, claiming that Democrats “move from hoax to hoax,” according to Rolling Stone.

“Somehow that whole squad put all the marbles in vilifying Project 2025, and then making this fake attachment to President Trump,” he said. Dans previously served in the Trump administration as the chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

The so-called “fake attachment” to Trump that Dans is complaining about must’ve at one point seemed real to him, as Dans previously touted the project’s connection to the former president during a radio interview.

On a May 2023 episode of the We the People Convention podcast, Dans boasted about having “great relationships” with Trump and other Republicans, according to Media Matters. Dans explained that Project 2025 focused on a presidential transition team, adding, “So ultimately, yes. I think, you know, President Trump’s very bought in with this.”

While at the time, Dans described the project as being “candidate neutral,” just last month he also called Project 2025 an “instruction manual” for a second Trump presidency. In May, he said he thought Trump would likely “adopt” many of the ideas in the lengthy mandate, which explains how to replace the administrative state with Trump loyalists, among other things.

Trump’s hopes of distancing himself from the plan is about to get a whole lot harder, with the announcement that he’s tapped Ohio Senator J.D. Vance to be his running mate. Not only does Vance have Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, fawning over him, he’s also said that Project 2025 has “some good ideas in there.” It makes sense, because Vance pitched the same purge of civil servants in 2022, arguing that Trump should defy the law, if necessary, to “deconstruct the administrative state.”

Elon Musk plans to donate $45 million per month to the nascent pro-Trump America PAC, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The super PAC, formed in May, has already received millions in donations from tech giants and Musk orbiters using their fortunes to influence the democratic process in Trump’s favor in 2024. The Wall Street Journal reported that the PAC “had $8.75 million in contributions for the three-month period ending on June 30,” including from former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

While Musk had not donated to America PAC as of June, he intends to begin the monthly donations in July, according to those familiar with the matter.

In March, Musk wrote on X, “I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.” But Musk’s political beliefs have taken a yearslong turn toward right-wing extremism, and in recent months, he has reportedly grown closer to Trump. Last week, he endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt against him and excoriated The New York Times for daring to run an op-ed critical of the presidential candidate after the shooting.

Musk has denied The Wall Street Journal’s reporting, posting a meme on X deeming the story fake news. Shortly after, however, he responded in the affirmative to a tweet saying, “Elon Musk went from being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT. The woke left really f*cked up. Badly.”

The details of the reporting on Musk and America PAC offer dizzying reminders of the vast power the superwealthy wield in our system of government—and how a party making increasing strides to appear populist of late happily benefits from these elites’ influence. Stressing the dire need for campaign finance reform, Senator Bernie Sanders responded to the story on X, writing, “This is oligarchy: a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.”