While he was on trial for bribery and conspiracy charges, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez spent most weeknights at a luxury four-star hotel in Lower Manhattan and used his campaign credit card to pick up the tab.
Menendez stayed in a Superior King room at the Millenium Downtown New York Hotel and paid a special discounted rate for government employees of $126 per night, a copy of his hotel bill obtained by the New Jersey Globe shows. State and city taxes and a facility fee brought Menendez’s nightly rate to nearly $189.
His Senate driver, Mike Ortega, drove from New Jersey to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan on weekdays to pick Menendez up outside the courthouse and drive him to his hotel less than a mile away. On Fridays, Ortega brought Menendez back to his home in Englewood Cliffs – sixteen miles away — and sometimes drove him back to New York on Sunday evenings
On three of the five Sundays in June, Menendez stayed in New York. Court typically started at 9:30 AM. Some mornings, Menendez had breakfast himself at George’s Diner, a little more than a mile from his hotel.
Menendez’s second quarter report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows a $2,560 payment to the hotel for lodging through June 30. He has an E-Z Pass paid for by his campaign.
His FEC report shows a $5,390 credit card bill from April, May, and June; it’s unclear whether the campaign picked Menendez’s meals during the trial.
The 55-story Hilton-affiliated hotel is located in the financial district near the One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial Museum. The rooms have views of Manhattan, the Hudson River, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The hotel was damaged in the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and reopened in the spring of 2003.
The three-term senator was convicted on eighteen counts after a 34-day trial that began on May 13 and ended on July 16. Menendez announced on July 23 that he was resigning from the Senate effective August 20.
Menendez has not returned to the Senate and continues to miss votes and committee meetings, but is taking his paycheck.