Greta: Justice Dept. deliberately sliming Menendez
'Off the Record,' 3/9/15: Anonymous leaks about possible future vague corruption charges? Outgoing Attorney General Holder owes Sen. Robert Menendez an apology. #RobertMenendez
By Greta Van Susteren
Let's go "Off the Record" for a minute. Late Friday, the Justice Department leaked that later this month, not now, but at some future unspecified date, the Justice Department will bring corruption charges against Democratic senator, Bob Menendez. Now, I have no idea if the senator did anything wrong or not, but I do know this: The manner in which this was leaked is a deliberate sliming of the US senator.
It would be one thing if the news were unsealing of an indictment based on testimony, but it is not. This is just an ugly, anonymous smear from the Eric Holder Justice Department, deliberately leaked to the media late on a Friday night. And I think the leak was intentionally done then so the Sunday morning talk shows would pick it up and talk about Senator Menendez, as though is he some kind of ax murderer and the crook.
Meanwhile, what can the senator do? Not much. He hasn't been charged with anything. All he can do is deny it. And of course, yes, some say this is political payback by Holder and his Justice Department to teach the Democratic senator a lesson because Senator Menendez dared to buck his party and disagreed with President Obama about Cuba and Iran.
I have no way of knowing whether that is true or not, but I am certain of one thing -- this smells rotten. Attorney General Eric Holder owes the senator an apology. That's my "Off the Record" comment tonight.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox