Capitol Hill Spring break flight records suggest fourth unpaid Menendez flight
Flight records obtained by Breitbart News show Dem donor Dr. Salomon Melgens private jet was in New Jersey near Sen. Bob Menendezs 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. The flight records show Melgens plane was in the Dominican Republic on a frequent basis.
The jet was there late March until April 2, at which point Melgens plane flew from La Romana International airport in the Dominican Republic to West Palm Beach. The flight path records, compiled by FlightAware, show Melgens plane stayed in West Palm Beach for a few days after that. Melgen lives in the West Palm Beach area.
On April 6, 2012, Melgens plane left Palm Beach International airport for The Dominican Republics La Romana International Airport again. It stayed on the ground there for half an hour--after landing at around 6 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time. The plane took off and flew back to West Palm Beach that evening.
It is unclear why the plane flew to the Dominican Republic and back that night. After landing back in West Palm Beach at around 9:22 Eastern Daylight Time on the evening of April 6, 2012, it sat in its hangar for a day. Then, on the morning of April 8, 2012--Easter Sunday--at 8:56 a.m., the plane left Palm Beach International airport. At 11:30 a.m., it landed at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
Teterboro is an airport meant for private jets and chartered flights, and is a 20-minute cab ride from Menendezs New Jersey home. After landing at Teterboro at 11:30 a.m. EDT, the plane sat for about an hour and ten minutes--just enough time to wait for someone to reach the airport from about 20 minutes away. At 12:50 p.m., Melgens plane took off for Las Americas International Airport in the Dominican Republic.
Menendezs public schedule--available on his Senate website--puts him in New Jersey the night before that flight, at an Easter Musical entitled Gods Masterpiece at Roselle Park Middle School in Roselle Park, New Jersey. Menendez does not appear to have had any public events until several days later. The Senate was not in session from March 31 until April 15.
It is during this timeframe that two Dominican Republic prostitutes alleged, in interviews with this reporter who broke the story for The Daily Caller before joining Breitbart News after the election, that they were under-paid to have sex with Menendez. The activity allegedly took place at Casa de Campo, a luxurious resort in the Dominican Republic around Easter-time in 2012. Casa de Campo is about an hour's drive from Las Americas airport. While Menendez denies soliciting prostitutes in the Dominican Republic--including during that alleged Easter Sunday incident--he and his staff have not yet offered any alternate explanation as to where the Senator was on Easter.
If Sen. Menendez was on that plane during Easter weekend--or any other time other than those three trips to which he and his staff have already admitted--he and his staff will have misled the American people. Senator Menendez has traveled on Dr. Melgens plane on three occasions, all of which have been paid for and reported appropriately, Menendezs staff admitted last week.
When Menendez admitted to the other three flights, he paid Melgens company back for two of them--a total of $58,500. That amount--paid via a check from Menendezs personal account--is between 8.6 and 18.5 percent of his entire net worth, and a little more than a third of his annual salary, a huge chunk of cash from the senators pocket.
Paul Brubaker, a Menendez spokesman based in New Jersey, told a local news reporter that the reason why the Senator paid for these trips out of his own pocket and not through his official office or campaign accounts was so they did not have to be reported to official authorities.
SOURCE http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/03/The-Mystery-Flight-of-Bob-Menendez
Excerpted/edited from the NYT: Mr. Menendez has pressured United States government officials to help enforce a Dominican Republic port security contract for a company "partly owned" by his crony and major donor, Dr. Salomon E. Melgen (now under scrutiny by the FBI, and HHS for Medicaid fraud).
Dr. Melgen tapped Pedro Pablo Permuy, Menendez's former national security adviser (w/ Dominican Republic oversight), and his senior legislative aide, to be a top executive for the port security comopany. Mr. Permuy's ties to the senator go back at least 20 years.
CLINTON CONNECTION Permuy was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Inter-American Affairs during the Clinton administration. Permuy worked for Mr. Menendez as a senior legislative aide from 1993-95 and then as his national security adviser from 2001-03.
In 2010. Permuy and Dr. Melgen held a fund-raising dinner in Maryland for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Mr. Menendez was then heading.
Good info, thanks for your post.