#afshari — Public Fediverse posts
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Donors To Senator Robert Menendez's Legal Defense Linked To Iranian Ex-Terror Group
Sen. Robert Menendez is fighting charges of illegal ties to foreign governments with help from people associated with the MEK, a controversial Iranian exile group.
Sen. Robert Mendendez (D-N.J.) is fighting charges that he accepted money in exchange for assisting foreign governments. That legal defense is being paid in part by donors with links to a former terrorist organization, a sign of the senator’s need for fast cash.
In September, federal prosecutors hit Menendez and his wife with a raft of bribery charges and, more recently, obstruction of justice. (Menendez and his wife pleaded not guilty to the charges.) With a trial scheduled for May, Menendez stands to rack up staggering legal fees. His legal defense fund, according to public disclosures, had already spent $373,223 as of the end of January.
Much of the cash in the fund — he has raised over $400,000 — comes from sources you might anticipate. There are, however, many lesser-known donors. One is Ahmad #Moeinimanesh, an electronic engineer from Northern California. Another is Hossein #Afshari, also from California.
An analysis of the donor rolls by Responsible Statecraft and The Intercept shows that about 15 percent of the people who gave to Menendez
— including Moeinimanesh and Afshari
— are linked to an Iranian exile group called the Mojahedin e-Khalq, or #MEK.
Menendez and the MEK have a relationship going back a decade. Shortly after the group was removed from a State Department list of “foreign terror organizations,” Menendez advocated for the MEK following an attack on its members by the Iraqi government.
Menendez’s elevation of the group as a viable alternative to the Islamic Republic continued since then. The senator met with its leader, Maryam Rajavi, last May and heaped praise on the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a so-called political wing indistinguishable from the MEK, at a 2022 Capitol Hill event organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, a group allied with the MEK.