By David Voreacos
Jan 17, 2025, 2:56 PM
Word Count: 346
(Bloomberg) —
The New Jersey attorney general’s office cleared state law enforcement officials of wrongdoing in a corruption case involving former US Senator Robert Menendez, who awaits sentencing after his conviction last year.
AG Matthew Platkin said Friday his inquiry “found no misconduct on the part of any past or present member of the office” or the Department of Law and Public Safety. He singled out two former attorneys general, Gurbir Grewal, and Andrew Bruck, for their “selfless service to the people of this state” and commended them as “exemplary public servants.”
Grewal was the attorney general in 2019 when Menendez tried to pressure him to “favorably resolve” two criminal matters at the behest of a businessman who bribed the senator with a Mercedes to help his associates, prosecutors said. Bruck was then a top deputy to Grewal, and attended a meeting with the senator.
At the Menendez trial last year, Grewal testified that the senator said he was concerned about insurance fraud investigations of Hispanics in the trucking industry and referred to a lawyer for a trucking company owner who was under indictment. Grewal said he told Menendez he couldn’t discuss pending investigations. Afterwards, Bruck said to Grewal: “Whoa, that was gross.”
Neither Grewal nor Bruck were accused of any wrongdoing in the Menendez case, and US prosecutors said the men resisted the pressure applied by the senator. Bruck declined to comment and Grewal didn’t immediately respond to a message.
After leaving the attorney general’s office, Grewal became the enforcement chief at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He now works as a partner at the law firm Milbank. Bruck became a top official at the Department of Justice.
Menendez, 71, was convicted of bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. Prosecutors say he accepted bribes of 13 gold bars, almost $500,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz seized at his home. Prosecutors have recommended a prison term of 15 years when he is sentenced on Jan. 29 with two businessmen. His wife, Nadine, faces a separate trial next month.
Photo: Gurbir Grewal, director of enforcement for US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), arrives for a new conference at the US Attorney’s Office-Southern District of New York (SDNY) in New York, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with eight criminal counts, including conspiracy and wire fraud, for allegedly misusing billions of dollars in customers funds before the spectacular collapse of his cryptocurrency empire.
Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.
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