Every corrupt politician now has a get-out-of-jail-free card

Will the courts ever again hold a corrupt political official to account? It appears unlikely, now that Sen. Bob Menendez has become the latest beneficiary of the US Supreme Court’s “get out of jail free” card.

In an abrupt reversal, the US Justice Department last week asked a federal judge to drop all remaining corruption charges against the Jersey Democrat.

This, after another judge dismissed seven of the 18 counts against Menendez and Dr. Salomon Melgen, saying: “There is no there there.”

And after the first trial ended with a hung jury.

Legal experts say prosecutors had little choice: Their case was almost entirely circumstantial, with no cooperating witness, no tape recordings and no videotapes.

The judge himself said prosecutors failed to produce any “facts, either direct or circumstantial,” to prove a quid pro quo: that Melgen lavished expensive gifts on the senator in exchange for political favors.

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