Jon Stewart has hit out at “dumb” New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez over his corruption trial, which began on Monday at Manhattan’s Federal District Court.
Menendez has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges including bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice. The 70-year-old, who was first elected in 2006, is accused of conspiring with his wife, Nadine Menendez, to accept bribes of gold, cash and luxury goods from wealthy associates to further their business interests and intervene in criminal cases.
Menendez also allegedly aided the governments of Egypt and Qatar on U.S. policy matters while chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee between 2021 and 2023. Newsweek has reached out to Robert Menendez for comment via email.
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On Monday night’s installment of The Daily Show, Stewart roasted Menendez for allegedly “helping a variety of shady government and clients,” before jumping to news coverage of the June 2022 search of Menendez’s home.
According to the clip—which included footage of CNN and MSNBC news reports—federal agents found more than $480,000 in cash, $100,000 of gold bars, evidence of payments toward a mortgage and a Mercedes-Benz convertible, along with a range of expensive furniture and household items. Some of the cash was stored in clothing items such as boots and Menendez’s congressional jacket, which Stewart called “Sacrilege.”
“But none of it ties the money to Menendez or Egypt,” Stewart added, cutting to an ABC News snippet.
“The indictment says, upon returning from one trip to Egypt, Menendez performed a web search for how much is one kilo [2.2 pounds] of gold worth,” a reporter said in the brief clip, sparking rapturous applause and hoots from the studio audience.
“Damn you metric system,” Stewart said. “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and your base 10 system of measurements and weights.
“This is shaping up to be one of the more cartoonishly blatant corruption cases in some time,” the comedian added.
Stewart then discussed reports that Menendez’s defense attorneys have proposed asking potential jurors for their thoughts on people from New Jersey, and whether they believe people from the state are more likely to commit crimes.
“You m************,” joked Stewart, putting on a stereotypical New Jersey accent and referencing former labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa. “You bury one union leader at your football stadium, whilst running a human-organ trafficking ring through some Secaucus rabbis, and suddenly your whole state is a suspect.
“Heh, Tone, you believe this?” Stewart continued, pointing to a photo of actor James Gandolfini who portrayed mafioso Tony Soprano in HBO‘s early 2000s crime drama The Sopranos.
Addressing reports that Menendez plans to blame the corruption charges on his wife, with court filings as a source, Stewart said: “It’s those three magic words that every woman is dying to her—’it was her.’
“I’d feel a lot worse for her if she wasn’t also demonstrably a terrible person,” Stewart continued. “Read up on it. I can’t explain everything right now. I’ll just say this. F****** awful.”
Describing the situation as a “not quite believable Real Housewives episode,” Stewart said the dumbest thing about the Menendez case is how unnecessary it all is.
“You, sir, are an elected official, in America’s most-respected legislative body; it’s like a license to print money,” Stewart said. “You don’t have to break the law so cartoonishly when the legal corruption in the Senate is so f****** lucrative.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.