--- description: The Supreme Court said super PACs aren't prone to corruption. Prosecutors are alleging otherwise in a case against Sen. Robert Menendez. title: The Menendez Charges Undermine the Supreme Court image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35bde47800e372bd/69878653e53aba3b854d860d/bob-mendez-indictment.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Supreme Court](/tag/supreme-court/) ## Supreme Court Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Robert Menendez Corruption Charges Undermine the Supreme Court by [Michael Scherer](/author/michael-scherer/) ## Michael Scherer Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 2, 2015 3:43 PM CUT  Ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez listens to testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington on March 11, 2015. Ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez listens to testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington on March 11, 2015.Mark Wilson–Getty Images by [Michael Scherer](/author/michael-scherer/) ## Michael Scherer Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 2, 2015 3:43 PM CUT **Correction appended, April 2** In his 2010 State of the Union, President Obama famously criticized the Supreme Court’s logic on a campaign finance decision even as several justices sat in the audience. Now, prosecutors at the U.S. Justice Department have found an even better way to make the case. In their indictment of New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, prosecutors have called foul on one of the central arguments for the court’s interpretation of campaign finance law in the _Citizens United_ decision. The indictment alleges that Florida opthamologist Solomon Melgen corruptly showered Menedez with gifts intended to influence official acts, from procuring visas for his foreign girlfriends to intervening in a dispute over Medicare billing. Among those things of value, according to prosecutors, was $600,000 in donations from Melgen’s company, Vitreo-Retinal Consultants, earmarked to help Menedez’s reelection through a super PAC called Majority PAC. Those donations came two years after Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a majority of the court in _Citizens United v. FEC_, ruled that such contributions to outside groups not directly controlled by candidates presented no risk of corruption or the appearance of corruption. “This Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,” Kennedy wrote. “That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy.” This argument was central to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow outside groups to collect and spend unlimited amounts of money to explicitly call for the election and defeat of a candidate for federal office. Since the money technically went to an organization not controlled by the candidate, the court reasoned, there was no sufficient government interest to stop it. ### These U.S. Senators Are the Only Ones to Ever Get Indicted  Robert Menendez Years in Senate: 2006-Present Party: Democrat State: New Jersey After more than a two-year investigation, a federal grand jury indicted Menendez on charges including conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud over his advocacy of business interests of Dr. Salomon Melgen. — Alex Rogers Win McNamee—Getty Images  Ted Stevens Years in Senate: 1968-2009 Party: Republican State: Alaska One of the country's longest-serving Senators was indicted on July 29, 2008 on seven counts of making false statements on disclosure forms for items he received from a company that helped renovate his house. According to the indictment, these items include a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, car exchanges and a Viking gas grill. Stevens was the most prominent figure in the FBI's investigation of public corruption in Alaska and was convicted on all seven counts on October 27, 2008, but a federal judge later overturned the ruling due to prosecutorial misconduct. — Alex Rogers Kris Connor—Getty Images  Kay Bailey Hutchison Years in Senate: 1993-2013 Party: Republican State: Texas After assuming office in 1993, the Texas Senator was indicted on charges of official misconduct due to the misuse of state equipment and employees for her election campaign, as well as tampering with evidence to impede the district attorney's investigation. Hutchison was acquitted of all charges shortly after her trial began, and she still went on to serve in the Senate for twenty years. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg Rick Kern—WireImage/Getty Images  David F. Durenberger Years in Senate: 1978-95 Party: Republican State: Minnesota Like Hutchison, Durenberger was indicted for misuse of public funds; he had requested reimbursement from the Senate for staying at a condominium that he secretly owned. After pleading guilty to five misdemeanors in 1995, prosecutors fined him $1,000 and sentenced him to a year of probation. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg Chris Greenberg—Bloomberg News/Getty Images  Harrison A. Williams Years in Senate: 1959-82 Party: Democrat State: New Jersey The New Jersey Senator took bribes from FBI agents posing as wealthy Arab businessmen in a sting operation and was indicted in 1980\. Williams resigned in 1982 prior to a Senate vote on his expulsion and served 21 months in federal prison on bribery and conspiracy charges. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg James Atherton—Bettmann/Corbis  Edward J. Gurney Years in Senate: 1969-74 Party: Republican State: Florida A strong Nixon supporter, Gurney served on the Senate committee that investigated the Watergate scandal but was later indicted in 1974 for lying to a grand jury and for bribery in a case involving influence-peddling. He chose not to run for re-election in '74, though he was eventually acquitted of all charges. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg AP  Burton K. Wheeler Years in Senate: 1923-47 Party: Democrat State: Montana The lawyer-turned-politician was indicted only a year after first taking office for accepting a fee to represent a client before the Department of the Interior (a conflict of interest with his legislative duties). Both the Senate and the courts later acquitted him. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg Bill Wunsch—Post Archive  Truman Newberry Years in Senate: 1919-22 Party: Republican State: Michigan Prosecutors indicted the wealthy industrialist for violating the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (he spent $3,750 to secure his election to the Senate over carmaker Henry Ford). Although the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1921, he left Congress a year later in the face of second movement to unseat him. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg Bettmann/Corbis  Joseph R. Burton Years in Senate: 1901-06 Party: Republican State: Kansas The first-term Senator was indicted in 1904 for accepting $2,500 to prevent a fraud order against the Rialto Grain and Securities Company. He appealed his six-month prison sentence and fine, but the new trial resulted in the same verdict, and he resigned his seat in 1906\. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg  Charles Dietrich Years in Senate: 1901-05 Party: Republican State: Nebraska Appointed to fill a vacancy, Dietrich was charged in 1903 with taking a bribe in exchange for the procurement of a postmaster's position, as well as entering into a government contract while serving in the Senate. He was acquitted less than two weeks later, found innocent by the Senate, and finished his term without seeking re-election. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg  John H. Mitchell Terms: 1873-79, 1885-97, 1901-05 Party: Republican State: Oregon A grand jury charged Mitchell in 1905 for using political influence to help clients obtain fraudulent land claims, as part of the Oregon Land Fraud Scandal. Sentenced to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine, he died while appealing the sentence. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg  John Smith Years in Senate: 1803-08 Party: Republican State: Ohio One of Ohio's first two Senators, he was approached by Aaron Burr to help with a military expedition against Spanish Florida. Smith agreed to provide supplies but withdrew his support when he learned that Burr's intentions were to take over parts of Mexico and the western United States. Nevertheless, he was still indicted in Virginia as a conspirator. The charges were dropped after Burr was acquitted on a technicality, but his implication in the Burr treason ruined his political career, and he resigned in 1808\. — James Downie and Baird Kellogg The indictment of Menendez, however, reveals in great detail the extent to which “independent” groups like Majority PAC have found ways to operate in close coordination with the candidate. And if Menendez is convicted, the case will prove that corruption can still be facilitated through these outside groups. “The _Citizens United_ court majority was obviously wrong in 2010 when it declared that independent expenditures can’t corrupt,” says Paul Ryan, an attorney for the Campaign Legal Center, who has long been critical of the decision. “Now we have concrete alleged evidence of how independent expenditures do corrupt.” The indictment alleges that Melgen gave the money to support Menendez in two checks of $300,000\. The first check was given on June 1, 2012, the very day when Melgen served on the host committee of Menendez’s annual fundraising event in New Jersey. Melgen allegedly gave the check to “a close personal friend” of the Senator at the fundraiser, who sent the check by FedEx to a person working to raise money for Majority PAC with a note saying “earmarked for New Jersey.” (That clearly meant Menendez. Majority PAC focused its spending on Democratic Senate races, and he was the only Democratic Senate candidate that year from New Jersey.) Melgen issued a second check on October 12, 2012, less than a month before the election, prosecutors allege. An email from a fundraiser that accompanied the second check also read “earmarked for New Jersey.” About six days after Melgen issued the first check, Menendez allegedly advocated on Melgen’s behalf in a Medicare billing dispute with the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. About a month later, Menendez sought a meeting with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to discuss Melgen’s concerns. “During Menendez’s meeting with the Secretary of HHS, Menendez advocated on behalf of Melgen’s position in his Medicare billing dispute, focusing on Melgen’s specific case and asserting that Melgen was being treated unfairly,” the indictment reads. “The Secretary of HHS disagreed with Menendez’s position.” After Melgen gave the second $300,000 check, Melgen separately emailed Menendez and a fundraiser for Senate Majority PAC a document asking again for Health and Human Services to intervene on his behalf in the Medicare billing dispute, the indictment claims. The fundraiser for the Senate Majority PAC wrote back by email that he would pass the information on to another senator, identified in the legal documents as Senator 3\. “Dear Sal, I’m going to see him on Tuesday. I will give this to him directly. Is that ok?” Menendez has maintained this innocence, and says he plans to fight the charges. **Correction:** This post initially misidentified the senator that a fundraiser for Senate Majority PAC promised to communicate with on Melgen’s behalf. _Read next:_ [_New Jersey Senator Faces Corruption Charges_](http://time.com/3767115/robert-menendez-indictment/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3769023/citizens-united-robert-menendez/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3769023/citizens-united-robert-menendez/"},"headline":"The Robert Menendez Corruption Charges Undermine the Supreme Court","datePublished":"2015-04-02T15:43:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:44.534Z","description":"The Supreme Court said super PACs aren't prone to corruption. Prosecutors are alleging otherwise in a case against Sen. 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