Eurasia Press & News
An American media, after reviewing the list of sponsors of the legal team of Senator “Bob Menendez”, who is facing accusations of bribery and corruption, reported that many of his donors are people who are connected to the terrorist group of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Bob Menendez, a prominent American senator, is facing accusations of taking bribes and receiving money in exchange for helping foreign governments, and according to new research, the terrorist group of MEK is one of the financial supporters of his legal team, and 15% of those who donated money to the Menandez Defense Fund are related to the MEK group.
According to the Intercept news agency, federal prosecutors in September charged the Democratic senator and his wife with bribery and obstruction of justice charges, and his trial is scheduled to take place in May, and he needs cash to cover his legal expenses. Menendez’s Legal Defense Fund had spent more than $373,000 by the end of January, according to public disclosures.
A large part of the credit of this fund, which has collected 400 thousand dollars so far, came from well-known donors. Donors from New York and New Jersey with various business and political interests in his state, including a real estate firm led by the Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law) family, have given money to the fund.
However, many of the fund’s donors are lesser-known, including Ahmed Moinimanesh and Hossein Afshari from California.
An analysis of the list of donors by the Intercept and Responsible Statecraft news agencies shows that about 15 percent of the people who have helped Menandez, including Moinimanesh and Afshari, are related to the terrorist group MEK.
The relationship between Robert Menendez and the group of MEK dates back to a decade ago; Sometime after the name of this group was removed from the list of terrorist organizations of the United States (the terrorist group of MEK was in the FTO list of the USA from 1997 until 2012). Menendez defended this terrorist group after the Iraqi government attacked its members.
Last May, this democratic senator also met with “Maryam Rajavi”, the leader of the group of MEK, and praised the “National Council of Resistance of Iran”(NCRI), a so-called indistinguishable political branch of the MEK, in an event related to the 2022 Congress organized by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities, (a group united by MEK).
According to this report, Menendez’s presence in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has made him one of the most influential Democrats in foreign policy. Therefore, Menendez’s influence in Washington and his warmongering stance towards Iran made him a valuable ally for the MEK.
In 1997, the name of the terrorist group of the MEK was included in the list of foreign terrorist organizations of the US Department of State due to its role in killing 6 Americans in Iran in the 1970s and the attempt to attack Iran’s representation in the United Nations in 1992. This designation lasted for a decade and a half, but after a lobbying campaign by its supporters in the United States, the group’s name was removed from the US terrorism list in 2012.
The shift in the US position meant that American politicians, including Menendez, could approach such groups without controversy or concern about the terror label. Since then, countless high-ranking American figures and officials have attended the group’s annual gatherings in Paris, the Capital of France, and have often been well-rewarded. For example, Mike Pence, the former vice president of the United States, received $430,000 from MEK after the end of the Trump administration.
Menendez is also one of the people who attended these gatherings, including in 2014. Later, he also spoke many times on different occasions in support of the MEK, which shows his close friendship with this terrorist group.
Now, it also appears that Senator Menendez has friends among the terrorist group of MEK who are willing to help him out at personal expense.
