A 23-year-old escort from the Dominican Republic who had claimed that New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez paid her for sex now says she was given money to lie — and, in fact, has never even met him.
Nexis de Los Santos Santana told authorities that her seamy tale of sex with the Democrat — a claim that was videotaped in October and posted on the conservative Web site the Daily Caller — “does not reflect the truth,” according to a court affidavit obtained by The Washington Post.
Instead, Santana said, a local lawyer paid her and another young escort to lie about having trysts with Menendez, a divorced dad of two, and his deep-pocketed Democratic donor pal, Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor.
Menendez, who has maintained all along that he never paid prostitutes for sex, said he is looking forward to whatever evidence emerges from courts in the Dominican Republic to vindicate him.
“I’ve always said that these are false, they’re smears,” Menendez, D-N.J., told reporters at the Capitol, referring to published reports that he paid prostitutes for sex in the Dominican Republic. “And, so, I look forward to seeing whatever the Dominican courts have that prove what I’ve said all along.”
Menendez has said the tales were part of a plot by enemies to thwart his re-election in the fall. In the past, he has worked to help Melgen with a lucrative port security deal in the Dominican Republic.
Menendez yesterday said, “As I’ve said all along, there are obviously some people . . . that have been perpetuating smears about me.”