Report: Menendez wants Cuban government investigated for smear campaign

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is calling for the country’s Justice Department to investigate the Cuban government for orchestrating a smear campaign against him that alleged he had sexual relations with underage prostitutes while vacationing in the Dominican Republic, according to The Washington Post.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“According to a former U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of government intelligence, the CIA had obtained credible evidence, including Internet protocol addresses, linking Cuban agents to the prostitution claims and to efforts to plant the story in U.S. and Latin American media,” the report says.

“The alleged Cuba connection was laid out in an intelligence report provided last year to U.S. government officials and sent by secure cable to the FBI’s counterintelligence division, according to the former official and a second person with close ties to Menendez who had been briefed on the matter.”

The Daily Caller reported back in November that Menendez was being investigated by the FBI over allegations that he had fled to the Dominican Republic and had sex with underage prostitutes at Dr. Salomon Melgen’s mansion, a regular campaign contributor.

Melgen’s Florida office was raided by the FBI in January and October of last year, but no charges have been filed against him as of this writing.

Three women, who identified themselves as escorts, initially stated publicly that they had sex with Menendez at Melgen’s mansion, a former Union City Mayor, but later reneged on their claims.

Dominican police later said that an attorney paid the prostitutes to make the claims to The Daily Caller, an accusation the news organization adamantly denied, per The Star Ledger.

Menendez was sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 17, 2006 and was named the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on February 1, 2013.

Based on The Washington Post article, Menendez belives the prostitute allegations came about to hurt both last year’s re-election campaign, as well as his chance to assume the chairman position in the Senate.