Medea Benjamin and Katie Powers, Huffington Post
Senator Robert Menendez, a powerful Democrat from New Jersey, has been down on his luck lately. He is currently under federal investigation for corruption, and although the senator has denied all allegations, charges are expected to be filed against him any day now.
This is not the first time the senator has been investigated. In fact, his wikipedia pageeven considers the 'Controversies' section too long to read and in need of subsections. Recently, the senator has been accused of using his government position to aid his long-time friend and donor, Dr. Soloman Melgen.
In 2008, when Dr. Melgen got into a dispute for overbilling Medicare, Sen. Menendez used his position on the Finance Committee to push for reforms of the Medicare multidosing policy -- a change that would have resulted in millions of dollars more for Melgen's practice. Menendez also used his power to persuade the Department of Homeland Security not to provide cargo screening equipment to the Dominican Republic since it would hurt the profits from Melgen's private company, which provides similar equipment.
