Northeast
Embattled Sen Bob Menendez files to run for re-election as independent candidate
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has filed a petition with nearly 2,500 signatures to run for re-election as an independent, despite being on trial for federal bribery charges.
The New Jersey Division of Elections lists Menendez as a candidate in the Nov. 5 election after he submitted a petition with 2,465 signatures. To make it onto the ballot, Menendez was required to collect 800 signatures.
Menendez has served three terms as a senator and is now seeking a fourth.
After much speculation over whether Menendez would run for re-election – given the various criminal charges he faces of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, bribery, acting as a foreign agent, extortion and honest services fraud – he revealed in March that he would not be filing for the Democrat Senate primary.
REPUBLICANS SEE EMBATTLED MENENDEZ’S POTENTIAL INDEPENDENT BID AS CHANCE TO FLIP SENATE SEAT
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon/File)
Instead, Menendez announced at the same time his desire to run as an independent if he is exonerated during his summer trial.
He did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on his bid for re-election.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine, have both pleaded not guilty to bribery and obstruction of justice charges. They are accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz for the benefit of various business persons and the Egyptian government.
The senator’s trial kicked off in May.
SEN BOB MENENDEZ MAY BLAME WIFE NADINE DURING FEDERAL CORRUPTION TRIAL: COURT DOCS
Sen. Bob Menendez holds a press conference as he rejects accusations of corruption and calls from fellow Democrats to step down from Congress on Sept. 25, 2023. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Jurors will be expected to discern whether evidence against Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, shows they were part of a bribery scheme, including meddling in criminal investigations and taking actions benefiting the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
All three have pleaded not guilty. Co-defendant Jose Uribe has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the other defendants. A trial for the senator’s wife is delayed until at least July for health reasons.
This is the second time in a decade that Menendez has been accused in a federal corruption case.
SEN MENENDEZ CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE IN ANOTHER SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT
An evidence photo shows gold bars that were allegedly gifted by Fred Daibes and found in Democrat New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and Nadine Menendez’s home. (United States District Court/File)
Menendez was charged by federal prosecutors with obstruction of justice in another superseding indictment unsealed in March relating to a multiyear alleged bribery scheme involving the Egypt and Qatar governments.
The 18-page indictment is wrapped into Menendez’s existing charges already against him and his co-defendants – including his wife, Nadine – for allegedly acting as a foreign agent and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to benefit the Egyptian government through his power and influence as a senator.
The indictment comes after Uribe accepted the plea deal and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The charges also alleged Menendez committed conspiracy, bribery, acting as a foreign agent, extortion and wire fraud.
Earlier in April, Nadine’s attorneys requested to postpone her trial after an “unexpected medical development” arose. She was diagnosed with a “serious medical condition” on April 9, her lawyers said.
Republicans in New Jersey welcomed the embattled senator’s potential independent re-election bid in 2024 as they look to break the party’s decades-long hold over the state’s U.S. Senate delegation.
Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
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Over the last few years, many states have made it harder for transgender people to access gender-affirming care, or in some cases have outright banned it for minors.
Transgender people in many states have been restricted from playing sports or using bathrooms that match their identities, and some states have censored school curricula that discuss LGBTQ+ people more broadly and limited free expression. At the federal level, the Trump administration has sought to limit people’s ability to update IDs like passports to reflect their gender.
That’s why many local LGBTQ+ organizations say celebrating Pride Month, which traditionally occurs in June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, is more important than ever.
“Looking at so much of how this country is portraying queer and trans people, we need to celebrate who we are as a people,” said Essex Pride President Kris Smith Thyme. “We need to show that we’re not monsters in a closet, that we’re friends and partners, neighbors, artists and creators.”
“There’s nothing more beautiful than celebrating queerness and transness in the face of all this hatred,” Thyme said.
St. Albans Pride Corps President Scott Bushey echoed Thyme’s sentiments.
“Pride celebrations started out as the very first protests,” said Bushey, and today holding a Pride event is practicing peaceful protest.
“(We’re) standing up for the fact that we deserve the same rights that everyone else gets,” Bushey said. “That we shouldn’t have to fight to get them or to keep them. That we shouldn’t have to worry about what we’re legally able to do.
Essex Pride and St. Albans Pride Corps are two of a number of Vermont LGBTQ+ organizations preparing to host events — festivals, movie nights, arts performances and social hours — to honor people who’ve faced discrimination for their sexualities or genders around this time of year.
Essex Pride’s three-day celebration is slated to take place a few days before Pride Month, from May 29-31, St. Albans Pride Corps’ six-day celebration is set for June 7-14.
Both Thyme and Bushey said their groups’ plans include “something for everyone,” regardless of age or interests.
Essex Pride events
Essex Pride’s fourth annual Pride celebration includes a garlic bread-eating social gathering; a comedy show and dance party; a drag story hour; a festival; a families and friends happy hour; a festival afterparty, which will include a drag and burlesque show with local performers; and free movie screenings of “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” and “Paris is Burning.”
The festival will include local performances, vendors, food trucks and creative activities for all ages and abilities. There will also be a quiet indoor space for people to view the Vermont Queer Archives and a memorial to trans people who have died from violence.
“Joy is the greatest act of resistance, but we can’t ignore what’s happening to the community now,” said Thyme.
St. Albans Pride Corps events
St. Albans Pride Corps’ third annual Pride celebration includes a Pride-based church service; a film screening of and panel discussion about “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar”; Pride game and karaoke nights; its Pride in the Park festival; a drag show; a parade; and a family day and ice cream social, with free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
St. Albans Museum will also have a monthlong exhibit about Pride in Vermont through the years. Attendees can add to a storytelling quilt at the museum.
Bushey said his organization included a Pride-based church service in its lineup because religious spaces are where many LGBTQ+ people have historically faced significant discrimination. He added that St. Albans has a “very large LGBTQ church-going community.”
“It’s really important to us that we really highlight the support of these local churches,” said Bushey. “There are lots of people who go to church who don’t come out because they’re afraid of being kicked out or pushed away.”
The five churches that will share the service believe “everybody is loved by God, that everyone is welcomed in church,” Bushey said.
Megan Stewart is a government accountability reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at mstewartyounger@gannett.com.
COUNT TWO
(Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization)
3.
From at least in or about 2019, up to and including the date of this Complaint, in an offense begun and committed out of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States, MOHAMMAD BAQER SAAD DAWOOD AL-SAADI, the defendant, and others known and unknown, at least one of whom is expected to be first brought to and arrested in the Southern District of New York, knowingly and intentionally combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to provide “material support or resources,” as that term is defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339A(b)(1), to a FTO, namely, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), which was designated by the U.S. Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization on or about April 15, 2019, and is currently designated as such as of the date of the filing of this Complaint.
4. It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that MOHAMMAD BAQER SAAD DAWOOD AL-SAADI, the defendant, and others known and unknown, would and did knowingly provide the IRGC with material support and resources, including property, services, lodging, weapons, personnel, training, facilities, explosives, and transportation, knowing that the IRGC was a designated terrorist organization (as defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339B(g)(6)), that the IRGC s engages and has engaged in terrorist activity (as defined in Section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act), and that the IRGC engages and has engaged in terrorism (as defined in Section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339B.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2339B(a)(1), (d)(1)(C), (d)(1)(D), (d)(1)(E), and (d)(1)(F), and 3238.)
COUNT THREE
(Conspiracy to Provide Material Support for Acts of Terrorism)
5.
From at least on or about February 28, 2026, up to and including the date of this Complaint, in an offense begun and committed out of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States, MOHAMMAD BAQER SAAD DAWOOD AL-SAADI, the defendant, and others known and unknown, at least one of whom is expected to be first brought to and arrested in the Southern District of New York, knowingly and intentionally combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to provide “material support or resources,” as that term is defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339A(b)(1), including property, services, lodging, weapons, personnel, training, facilities, explosives, and transportation, knowing and intending that they were to be used in preparation for and in carrying out one or more of the following violations of Title 18, United States Code: (a) attempting and conspiring to murder nationals of the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332(b), and (b) bombing and conspiring to bomb a place of public use, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332f.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2339A and 3238.)
2
A fire broke out at a home in East Boston Sunday evening, extending to additional buildings and sending black smoke billowing high into the air.
The Boston Fire Department said the flames started at a multi-family home at 263 Princeton Street. There was heavy fire on all three of the home’s porches, which had burned through to the inside.
The fire damaged three additional buildings, the fire department said on social media, and more crews were called in to help. Thousands of feet of firehose were used to battle the flames.
Deputy Fire Chief Steven Shaffer told NBC10 Boston that one firefighter was taken to the hospital by Boston EMS after suffering burns on his hand.
It’s unclear exactly how many homes were damaged by the fire in total, but the fire department said 21 people were displaced. The American Red Cross of Massachusetts assisted them with shelter and emergency supplies.
There was no immediate word on the fire’s cause. An investigation is underway.
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