Lifezette: Menendez Investigation Expands to Touch Harry Reid

I don't think Harry Reid is being charged or anything like that. But he's being credited with an Assist on the Bribery Goal Menendez is being prosecuted for.

Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, tried to pressure the White House under President Barack Obama in an overbilling case that is now the centerpiece of the charges against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The latest in the case against Menendez, whose trial starts Wednesday, was made public in filings in federal courts.

Menendez stands accused of inappropriately using his office to help campaign donor Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who plied Menendez with campaign cash but also expensive trips to the Caribbean and Paris.

The involvement of Reid, however, was a surprise to some.

Menendez enlisted Reid in November 2011 to help pressure the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, according to Bloomberg News. Melgen wanted the federal government to reverse its ruling that Melgen owed $8.9 million for overbilling Medicare.

posted by Ace at 03:33 PM

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