N.J. Senator Menendez Federally Investigated
A federal grand jury is investigating whether New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, a former member of the U.S. House, illegally steered lobbying business to his former chief of staff with whom he was also romantically linked.
A close and trusted aide to Menendez while he served in the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2002, Kay LiCausi went on to build an unusually successful lobbying firm in a very short period of time after leaving Congress. In just a few years her firm reported $1.3 million in business with nearly $300,000 coming from a New Jersey medical center that was later awarded government funding thanks to a push from her former boss.
A federal grand jury in Newark recently subpoenaed volumes of financial documents from the medical center to determine of LiCausiĆ¢??s lobbying efforts on behalf of the facility began while she worked for Menendez, a Democrat of Cuban descent with a hard-line stance against Dictator Fidel Castro that has broken with his party.
Authorities are also investigating another suspicious connection between another one of the former Congressional aideĆ¢??s clients and her boss. Several months after the mega cruise line Royal Caribbean hired LiCausi to lobby on its behalf, Senator Menendez announced a whopping $9.5 million federal funding package to repair the shoreline and extend a berth for the companyĆ¢??s ships.