WASHINGTON — Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) will donate to charity some of the campaign donations he received from a developer charged this month in a federal corruption case against two Albany, N.Y., lawmakers, according to media reports.
Menendez, who is up for re-election in 2012, has received more than $33,000 from developer Aaron Malinsky and his relatives over the years. The senator’s campaign said it would donate $10,500 — all the money received from Malinsky and his relatives in his current election cycle, which dates back to 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
New York’s two US senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, had already decided to donate the $250 they each received from Malinsky. But others who received donations from him — including Menendez, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — did not initially say what they would do with the money.
In a statement Friday, the Menendez campaign said the senator “believes in honoring the highest ethical standards” and decided to make the donations “in an abundance of caution.” The campaign did not say which charity or charities would receive the money.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed a criminal complaint last week charging that Malinsky and others funneled bribes to New York state Sen. Carl Kruger and a close associate as they sought to gain government approvals and, in some cases, taxpayer financing for real-estate development deals.