"FBI seeks source of prostitution, corruption allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez" [View all]

[applegrove]

FBI seeks source of prostitution, corruption allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez

By Carol D. Leonnig and Peter Wallsten at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-seeks-source-of-prostitution-corruption-allegations-against-sen-robert-menendez/2013/05/16/72ad79a0-bbda-11e2-89c9-3be8095fe767_story.html?hpid=z2

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A pair of FBI agents met on a recent weekday morning with brothers Alfonso “Alfy” and Jose “Pepe” Fanjul in the Palm Beach headquarters of their sugar and real estate empire.

The investigators’ questions struck a discordant note in the Fanjuls’ sunlit offices overlooking a yacht-filled waterway, according to three people familiar with the meeting: Were the brothers or any of their associates familiar with a plot to bring down a United States senator?

Months after the FBI began probing allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), investigators are looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for reelection last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to four people briefed on the inquiry.

The scene of federal agents interviewing two of the world’s wealthiest sugar barons, whose business holdings include Domino Sugar, underscores the unusual twists of the saga centered on Menendez, who has been battling allegations that he did special favors for a major campaign donor.


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