Two of the most intriguing parts of Yellowstone and all of its spinoffs are the political scandals and the family drama.
The Dutton Ranch is ripe with power plays, backstabs, love affairs and lies.
But not even the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, could concoct a scandal as wild as the one playing out around this Democrat U.S. Senator.
Possibly the most corrupt state in the union
New Jersey has a long history of political corruption.
It dates all the way back to the British colonial days when then-Governor, Lord Cornbury, was accused of embezzlement and accepting bribes.
According to the editor-in-chief of the College of New Jersey’s newspaper, The Signal, Jersey City mayor from 1917 to 1947, Democrat Frank Hague, died a multi-millionaire despite spending his 30-year career making just $9,000 per year.
In the early 1980s, the FBI busted former Garden State U.S. Sen. Harrison Williams – another Democrat – selling political favors to who he believed to be wealthy sheikhs. The following decade, several leading Democrats in the city of Newark were caught in a corruption circle.
In 2009, the mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield, and Secaucus, two members of the New Jersey Assembly, and the deputy mayor of Jersey City were all investigated for their parts in a black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags circle.
Former New Jersey Governor, and twice-failed GOP presidential hopeful, the Never-Trump Chris Christie was the centerpiece in Bridgegate.
Christie shut down two lanes of busy traffic on the George Washington Bridge to gain retribution and send a political message to a rival mayor.
Late last year, Politico reported that the Garden State’s sitting Democrat Governor Phil Murphy had been caught red-handed spending $12,000 in taxpayer funds to attend sporting events and a Taylor Swift concert.
But all of those pale in comparison to the sultan of scandal, New Jersey’s senior U.S. Senator, Bob Menendez.
And the latest story surrounding Menendez and his wife is something straight out of a daytime soap opera.
Scandals could cost Sen. Menendez his seat
Last year, Senator Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges.
The incumbent Senator from the Garden State – as well as his wife – were charged with bribery for allegedly receiving envelopes stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and even gold bars from various businessmen and officials in Egypt.
It wasn’t his first scandal.
In 2015, he was accused of accepting gifts like a trip to Paris in return for political favors.
Because of the ongoing scandals, Menendez isn’t seeking re-election in 2024 – at least not as a Democrat.
The 70-year-old has said he’s considering a third-party bid to keep his seat.
However, yet another scandal could scrap any ideas Menendez has of staying in the Upper Chamber.
The secret stay that could sink a senator
The New York Post is now reporting that when Menendez first started dating his much younger wife from Beirut, Lebanon, back in 2018, she disappeared for a week.
According to the Post, at the time Nadine Arslanian left a cryptic note on her door, left all her lights on, and her television blasting but was nowhere to be found.
The report goes on to say that her other lover at the time, New Jersey lawyer Douglas Anton – who represented disgraced R&B star R. Kelly – reached out to the police in fear for her safety.
“I did a missing persons report,” Anton told the Post. “And they had to come to the house to check to make sure that someone didn’t kill her and put her in a closet.”
The Cops did officially declare Arslanian a “missing person.”
But the Post’s report goes on to say Arslanian was beyond safe.
In fact, she was allegedly enjoying a top-secret luxury vacation in the Dominican Republic with her other boyfriend at the time, Senator Menendez.
“On the flight back from the DR, she could not get on the plane and had to call for a government check,” Anton said. “That’s when he [Menendez] first found out we were still ‘seeing’ each other on and off during the week when he was in DC. She later said he freaked out and was “p**ed.”:”
The couple were allegedly staying in Punta Cana – which is very close to Casa de Campo, the resort Menendez often frequented with the man who Menendez was accused of accepting bribes from back in 2015.
The 2018 exotic excursion with his future wife was so secret that the report indicated she didn’t even inform her children, her sister or any of her friends that she was leaving.
“She finally landed and blew up my phone, came right to my house to explain, crying and to apologize,” Anton said. “I asked her, ‘Why did you do that?’” said Anton. “It was more about Bob wanting to be incognito.”
According to the Post, police checked on Arslanian once she finally returned home.
And when they arrived, they found her with one of the Egyptian-American businessmen, she and her husband are now accused of accepting bribes from.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Menendez have denied the story.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
