Thread: DEM. SENATOR IMPLICATED IN ANOTHER POTENTIAL SEX SCANDAL - Sen. Bob Menendez

POLITICS

REPORT: DEM. SENATOR IMPLICATED IN ANOTHER POTENTIAL SEX SCANDAL

Jun. 23, 2013 9:58am Madeleine Morgenstern

Sen. Bob Menendez took a “romantic getaway” with a married newspaper publisher, the latest sex scandal allegation to hit the New Jersey Democrat, the New York Post reported:

AP

The New Jersey Dem and Cecilia Reynolds jetted to Puerto Rico, where they stayed at the isolated beach retreat of the island’s then-governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila.

In a photo provided by the anonymous informant, Reynolds is sitting naked on a beach and suggestively smiling at the camera. In another set of pictures, they take turns posing against the same sunset backdrop.

The happy couple, dressed in shorts, also appeared to tour a national park and pose for a photo at a waterfall, Menendez wrapping his arm around Reynolds’ waist.

A document with copies of the photos along with details of the alleged tryst were provided to media organizations and the National Legal and Policy Center, a Virginia-based ethics watchdog group.

Reynolds, who started the Spanish-language paper Nosotros in 2002, told the Post Friday that “any and all allegations being peddled by a former disgruntled business partner are false and malicious” but did not say who she believes was tipping the media.

Minutes later, Menendez released a statement saying: “These are the same kind of questionably timed smear tactics that we’ve seen before, and we’re not going to dignify them with a comment.”

Menendez was first implicated in a potential sex scandal in October after the Daily Caller reported visited prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. Multiple reports subsequently emerged about women coming forward saying they had been paid to lie. Menendez has flatly denied the prostitution allegations.
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...l-sex-scandal/

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez wooed married woman: source

• By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
• Last Updated: 6:05 AM, June 23, 2013
• Posted: 3:10 AM, June 23, 2013

EXCLUSIVE

Sen. Robert Menendez wooed a married newspaper publisher, taking the attractive brunette on a romantic getaway to the Caribbean, a tipster alleges.

The New Jersey Dem and Cecilia Reynolds jetted to Puerto Rico, where they stayed at the isolated beach retreat of the island’s then-governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila.

In a photo provided by the anonymous informant, Reynolds is sitting naked on a beach and suggestively smiling at the camera. In another set of pictures, they take turns posing against the same sunset backdrop.

The happy couple, dressed in shorts, also appeared to tour a national park and pose for a photo at a waterfall, Menendez wrapping his arm around Reynolds’ waist.



PAPER TRAIL:NJ Sen. Robert Menendez in Facebook pic with the publisher of Nosotros, Cecilia Reynolds (above right; and below, at her home last week).

A document with copies of the photos along with details of the alleged tryst were provided to media organizations and the National Legal and Policy Center, a Virginia-based ethics watchdog group.

Reynolds, 50, the mother of two adult children, refused to talk to a reporter Friday as she left her Freehold, NJ, home and approached the Porsche Cayenne SUV in her driveway. She hurried back inside the house and would not come to the door.
“My husband and I were separated for a period of time in the past,” she said in a statement released Friday night. “Any and all allegations being peddled by a former disgruntled business partner are false and malicious.”

Her husband, Matt Reynolds, earlier told a reporter the couple was indeed married in 2007 when the affair allegedly happened. He said he would “neither confirm nor deny” her relationship with Menendez.

The senator’s office released a statement six minutes after Reynolds, saying, “These are the same kind of questionably timed smear tactics that we’ve seen before, and we’re not going to dignify them with a comment.”

Menendez, 59, who was named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this year and has been a leading proponent of immigration reform, has been embroiled in scandal for the past few months. His relationship with a wealthy Florida donor, from whom he accepted free flights on a private plane, is under scrutiny.

It’s unclear how he and Reynolds traveled to Puerto Rico for the alleged rendezvous.

The trip came at a time when the senator was trying to thwart the appointment of Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez as the US attorney for Puerto Rico. He placed a “senatorial hold,” or block, on the appointment, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Rodriguez-Velez was the interim US attorney, and her office had turned its sights on Menendez’s pal, the former Puerto Rico governor, investigating him for alleged campaign-finance violations and other wrongdoing. She was later confirmed despite the senator’s interference, and Acevedo Vila was indicted in 2008 on 19 criminal counts. He was found not guilty.

“Menendez apparently sees no ethics problem with taking his married girlfriend to the Puerto Rican governor’s beach house while the governor was under federal investigation, and published reports describe Menendez as putting a senatorial hold on the nomination of the US attorney who was to oversee the investigation,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center. “Is there any wonder the public has such a low opinion of elected officials?”

When Menendez ran for re-election in November 2006, his campaign placed a full-page ad in Nosotros, the free Spanish-language newspaper Reynolds started in 2002.

Menendez, whose parents were Cuban, has been prominently featured on its pages. He posed in a group photo, along with Reynolds, that appeared on the front page after a May 2011 visit to an immigrant center Reynolds helped set up in Freehold.

Menendez even provided a testimonial for the paper, calling it “one of the most substantive newspapers in either English or Spanish that I have read.”

Reynolds, who would not disclose the name of the ex-partner she believes is tipping media to the alleged affair, donated $2,500 to Menendez’s campaign in 2011.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/n...pWXg5WlpLflqHI