U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, has filed a new motion to dismiss corruption charges against him, finding hope in last week’s appellate ruling reversing the bribery conviction of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
The “stream of benefits” theory of quid pro quo bribery advanced in Menendez’s indictment cannot be reconciled with the Supreme Court’s June 2016 decision vacating the bribery conviction of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, Menendez said in his motion Tuesday. And the same sort of broad definition of official acts in Menendez’s indictment was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on July 13 in the Silver decision, which was based on a reclassification of that term in McDonnell, the senator said in his filing.
