SPRING BREAK: FLIGHT RECORDS SUGGEST FOURTH MENENDEZ FLIGHT
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.
The flight records show Melgen’s plane was in the Dominican Republic on a frequent basis. The jet was there in late March until April 2, at which point Melgen’s plane flew from La Romana International airport in the Dominican Republic to West Palm Beach, Florida. The flight path records, compiled by FlightAware, show Melgen’s plane stayed in West Palm Beach for a few days after that.
Melgen lives in the West Palm Beach area.
On April 6, 2012, Melgen’s plane left Palm Beach International airport for The Dominican Republic’s 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 Menendez’s 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., Melgen’s plane took off for Las Americas International Airport in the Dominican Republic.
Menendez’s public schedule--available on his Senate website--puts him in New Jersey the night before that flight, at an Easter Musical entitled God’s 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. Melgen’s plane on three occasions, all of which have been paid for and reported appropriately,” Menendez’s staff admitted last week.
When Menendez admitted to the other three flights, he paid Melgen’s company back for two of them--a total of $58,500. That amount--paid via a check from Menendez’s 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 senator’s 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.
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