Menendez investigation expands
FBI serves subpoenas for data about rent paid to lawmaker

November 12, 2006 The Record

TRENTON: Authorities have stepped up an investigation of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's relationship with a federally funded nonprofit organization just days after his hard-fought election victory, according to a senior government official.

The official said FBI agents served subpoenas Thursday and Friday seeking information related to the North Hudson Community Action Corp., which paid more than $300,000 over nine years to rent a Union City building from then-Rep. Menendez.

The subpoenas are being served on close associates of Menendez, as well as people affiliated with North Hudson and other groups linked to the senator, the official said.

On Tuesday, Menendez, a Democrat, defeated Republican state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. to win a full term in the Senate seat to which Gov. Jon S. Corzine appointed him in January. Most of Kean's campaign was a concerted attack on Menendez's ethics, including the lease investigation, which had gone quiet since early September in apparent deference to the political process.