Several months ago, The Daily Caller reported that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) allegedly paid for sex in the Dominican Republic. The article appeared to be based on largely non-existent evidence; the FBI found nothing to support the allegations, and two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported that a Dominican escort now says she was “paid to make up the claims and has never met or seen the senator.”
In response, the conservative online news outlet said it had relied on a different Dominican escort, so it saw no need to retract the story. Today, we’re learning that more than one Dominican escort was paid to lie about the Democratic senator.
Police in the Dominican Republic say they have determined that three women who said they had sex with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez for money were in fact paid to make false claims by an attorney in the Caribbean country.
Police spokesman Maximo Baez says officers traced the payments to attorney Melanio Figueroa. Baez says two women received about $425 each and the other was paid about $300 to falsely state on camera that they had sex with Menendez (D-N.J.).
As Matt Gertz added, these latest revelations come on the heels of reports from several outlets, ABC News, the Star Ledger, and the New York Post, each of which had been offered the story by Republican operatives, and each of which turned down the story, deeming it unreliable and the escorts’ claims unreliable.
There are other allegations surrounding the senator that have not been resolved, but these specific allegations hyped by Tucker Carlson’s site appear to have completely fallen apart.
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