Menendez’s conviction shattered a once-powerful career and set a chilling precedent: a sitting U.S. senator found guilty of acting as a covert agent for a foreign government. The jury heard about gold bars, cash, and favors tied to Egypt, and decided the evidence was overwhelming. Yet Menendez walked out of court not as a man humbled, but as a man claiming persecution, insisting his fate proves politics has poisoned justice.
