HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute Story

Posted on | February 4, 2013 | 26 Comments

The shadowy (and probably pseudonymous) tipster “Peter Williams” gave specific details about the prostitutes who were allegedly provided to New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez in the Dominican Republic. Two Miami Herald reporters, Kathleen McGrory and Melissa Sanchez, traveled to Santo Domingo to check out the story and, while they were unable to locate the prostitutes, they were able to confirm certain details:

[S]hreds of evidence in Santo Domingo show that, at the very least, the women Williams described exist.
Take an apartment in Santo Domingo’s upscale Gazcue neighborhood that Williams said was used for sexual liaisons. In April emails to a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Williams alleged that Dr. Salomon Melgen, a friend and major campaign donor to Menendez, rented a unit for a Brazilian prostitute named Maria and a Colombian prostitute named Geraldine.
The apartment exists. When reached by phone, the landlady said that two young women named Geraldine and Maria had indeed lived there last year, and said the nationalities matched.
However, the landlady, who declined to be named, did not believe the women to be prostitutes — she said she thought they were beautiful foreign exchange students — and had never heard of Menendez or Melgen visiting the apartment. But she complained that the women had nearly destroyed the unit, even leaving the wallpaper torn up when they abandoned the apartment last year.
“They behaved very badly,” she said. The apartment has since been rented to others and is now back on the market for $1,000 a month.

You can read the whole thing. The details confirmed by the two Miami Herald reporters are important because — as anyone with experience chasing this kind of story would tell you — if the story were totally bogus, basic facts like names and addresses wouldn’t check out.

A bogus story would have make-believe girls at non-existent addresses, but instead this story has the little details right. The fact that the women have now “disappeared,” as McGrory and Sanchez report, isn’t particularly surprising, nor is it surprising that the landlady (a) thought the hookers were “foreign exchange students” and (b) didn’t know the names of their alleged clients.

Locating the two hookers in the Dominican Republic may prove difficult for the simple reason that the country is crawling with hookers:

“Prostitution is everywhere here; on the beach, in the bars, in the clubs,” said Antonio Guzman, 36, a hustler who has worked the beach for 15 years and regularly connects tourists with prostitutes. “This place runs on it.” . . .
Long before explosive allegations emerged claiming Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and a political contributor flew to the country for wild parties with several prostitutes, the Dominican Republic had cemented its reputation as a hub for sex tourism. . . .
Studies suggest between 60,000 and 100,000 women work in the sex trade in the country, according to the Center for Integral Orientation and Investigation, a health and outreach organization based in the capital, Santo Domingo.

So this Caribbean island nation where Senator Menendez paid frequent visits is a sort of regional hooker-magnet. And exactly how many trips to the Dominican Republic did Senator Menendez make on the private plane of his Palm Beach campaign contributor? There seems to be some dispute about this, Matthew Boyle reports:

Flight records obtained by Breitbart News show Democratic Party donor Dr. Salomon Melgen’s private jet was in New Jersey near Sen. Bob Menendez’s home on April 8, 2012 — Easter Sunday last year. From there, it flew straight to the Dominican Republic.
Menendez and his staff have not answered when asked repeatedly whether the Senator was on that flight. They also have not provided any accounting as to where Menendez was on Easter Sunday, either.

Read the whole thing. This is highly interesting, because on Jan. 4, Menendez paid back Dr. Melgen $58,500 for three flights, but this (alleged) Easter weekend trip wasn’t one of those, and it was during the Easter weekend trip that one of the sex parties (allegedly) took place.

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Category: Corruption, Culture, Dominican Republic, New Jersey, Scandal, Sex

Comments

26 Responses to “HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute Story”

Opinador Fthagn !
February 4th, 2013 @ 7:34 am

Menendez offices in the Senate should have a sign like this :

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7bj6iQ9MDyM/SWl71w8i-lI/AAAAAAAAEOk/IJMtS_kwBnY/s1600-h/00271+Boston.JPG

(pic by me, 2009)
» You say Menendez - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
February 4th, 2013 @ 9:18 am

[…] Robert Stacy McCain is all over the story like a U.S. Senator on a Dominican prostitute. Oh wait, bad […]
Evi L. Bloggerlady
February 4th, 2013 @ 9:50 am

He should walk around with a sign board that says “I am a corrupt politician and a scum bag”
Groty1
February 4th, 2013 @ 9:50 am

I had no clue that the Dominican Republic is a popular destination for the sex tourism business. The things we learn from the “alleged” scandals of our Senators.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
February 4th, 2013 @ 9:50 am

Let’s see who in the media follows.
McGehee
February 4th, 2013 @ 10:29 am

What, the “D” after his name doesn’t suffice?
ConMom
February 4th, 2013 @ 10:34 am

[…] HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute Story Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. Tags: Bob Menendez […]
Finrod Felagund
February 4th, 2013 @ 11:11 am

But will we have to wait for one of the tabloids to get involved, as with John Edwards, before the MSM gets off its butt and decides to report on this?
robertstacymccain
February 4th, 2013 @ 11:57 am

At this point, there seems to be growing interest in the MSM. They smell blood in the water, I think, and can’t just sit around getting scooped day after day (with Drudge links) by the Daily Caller and Breitbart. If the Miami Herald can get this kind of stuff …
If All You See… » Pirate's Cove
February 4th, 2013 @ 1:00 pm

[…] blog of the day is The Other McCain, who continues his great coverage of […]
Bob Belvedere
February 4th, 2013 @ 1:44 pm

The MSM may enter the story in order to help minimize the damage to the Democratic Party [I know, I know…].
Why Is Bob Menendez Still A US Senator? | The Lonely Conservative
February 4th, 2013 @ 1:50 pm

[…] 4, 2013By Lonely ConservativeSenator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is no stranger to scandal, but the latest allegations against him would have meant the end of his political career if he had an R next to his name rather […]
Quartermaster
February 4th, 2013 @ 2:19 pm

Bob, you’re such a cynic. Your view of human nature is rather on the dim side. I prescribe Bourbon for the sake of your mental health.
Dominican Prostitute in Menendez Scandal Says They Were ‘Very Mistreated’ : The Other McCain
February 4th, 2013 @ 3:01 pm

[…] point this out because there were people in the comments of my post this morning (“HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute Story“) who were wondering if the mainstream media were going to ignore this story and let […]
Adjoran
February 4th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm

Not sure just how “key” this “key detail” is.

Suppose, for example, that tipster in question is familiar with the way in which reporters check facts. Notice the address and names were provided by him, details MEANT to be checked. Since the women are long gone and untraceable, and no real information was gained in the “fact checking,” the tipster bolsters his credibility with the reporters without either divulging his real name or how he knows these things, or even giving any direct evidence to be checked.

The Herald reporters got a paid vacation to go to Dominican Republic and “investigate hookers.” Nice work if you can get it.
jsn2
February 4th, 2013 @ 3:08 pm

Democrat political corruption in New Jersey is the norm. The place is as crooked as Obama’s forked tongue.
Finding evidence of a corrupt New Jersey democrat is like spotting a bear shit’n in the woods. You know it happens every day, but it’s hard to prove. To bad the corrupt media won’t run with the evidence.
Have You Heard The One About The Democrat And The Dominican Hooker? « American Glob
February 4th, 2013 @ 6:57 pm

[…] Stacy McCain has a big scoop that’s getting a lot of play at Memeorandum today. The shadowy (and probably pseudonymous) tipster “Peter Williams” gave specific details about the prostitutes who were allegedly provided to New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez in the Dominican Republic. Two Miami Herald reporters, Kathleen McGrory and Melissa Sanchez, traveled to Santo Domingo to check out the story and, while they were unable to locate the prostitutes, they were able to confirm certain details: [S]hreds of evidence in Santo Domingo show that, at the very least, the women Williams described exist. Take an apartment in Santo Domingo’s upscale Gazcue neighborhood that Williams said was used for sexual liaisons. In April emails to a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Williams alleged that Dr. Salomon Melgen, a friend and major campaign donor to Menendez, rented a unit for a Brazilian prostitute named Maria and a Colombian prostitute named Geraldine. […]
Bob Belvedere
February 4th, 2013 @ 8:24 pm

All real conservatives are cynical about their fellow men [Original Sin and all that].
Svitlana Buchyk: Mystery Woman in Menendez HookerGate Scandal : The Other McCain
February 4th, 2013 @ 9:29 pm

[…] It?Feb. 4: Dominican Prostitute in Menendez Scandal Says They Were ‘Very Mistreated’Feb. 4: HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute StoryFeb. 2: Billion With a ‘B’: Did Menendez Provide Special Favors to HookerGate Donor?Jan. 31: If […]
Monday Catch-Up: “Kneel Before Zod” « Nice Deb
February 4th, 2013 @ 10:16 pm

[…] has been on the Menendez beat, and has filed four posts on the growing scandal in one day. HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute Story Dominican Prostitute in Menendez Scandal Says They Were ‘Very Mistreated’ HookerGate: What […]
The PJ Tatler » Details Check Out in Democrat Menendez Jailbait Hooker Scandal
February 5th, 2013 @ 9:19 am

[…] February 5, 2013 – 6:19 am Tweet Via R.S. McCain, the Miami Herald took a trip to the Dominican Republican, not on Dr. Melgen’s private jet. […]
WyBlog - The Star-Ledger runs interference for Bob Menendez, conveniently ignoring actual news
February 5th, 2013 @ 9:21 am

The Star-Ledger runs interference for Bob Menendez, conveniently ignoring actual news…

See? Real Reporting. Aggregated by none other than the indefatigable Robert Stacy McCain. Stacy’s been all over the Menendez story from the get-go, and along the way he just happened to discover a very interesting fact about tourism in the Dominican R…
Rounder The Tubes: Too Many Links To Wait For Tommorow « doubleplusundead
February 5th, 2013 @ 6:58 pm

[…] vacations as Dem pol uses US gov’t to strong arm Dominican Republican and everybody’s focusing on the prostitute angle. It’s All About Sex(tm) you know, as we saw play so well in every Democratic scandal since […]
Rounder The Tubes: Too Many Links To Wait For Tomorrow « doubleplusundead
February 5th, 2013 @ 7:03 pm

[…] vacations as Dem pol uses US gov’t to strong arm Dominican Republican and everybody’s focusing on the prostitute angle. It’s All About Sex(tm) you know, as we saw play so well in every Democratic scandal since […]
The answer is because he is a Democrat « The Daley Gator
February 10th, 2013 @ 10:06 am

[…] Why is Bob Menendez still a US Senator? Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is no stranger to scandal, but the latest allegations against him would have meant the end of his political career if he had an R next to his name […]
Sources Tell Washington Post FBI Can’t Find Menendez’s Dominican Hookers : The Other McCain
February 16th, 2013 @ 3:07 pm

[…] Feb. 4: HookerGate: Miami Herald Confirms Elements of Menendez Prostitute Story […]