U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez

"Stringing up crime scene tape and using a locksmith, the FBI on Tuesday and Wednesday raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.”

Agents hauled away boxes and bags of evidence from the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, to start hauling away potential evidence in several vans.

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Underaged? I hope they throw him under the jail!

chickaree wrote: Underaged? I hope they throw him under the jail!

Who knows what the legal age is in the Dominican Republic ?

It does't matter. It happened here.

Will he be forced to resign? Chris Christie would get to pick his replacement. Would he want the job?

I can see wanting to get a little strange belly but what kind of man goes after a child, even if she is actively involved in prostitution? I hope he is arrested, tried, and convicted if he actually did what he is accused of and sent to a special prison where a long line of convicts can help him relive that special moment from the perspective of the victim. Hour by hour, day by day, week, month, for years and years.

Even if they were prostitutes, it's still statutory rape, right?

There's the wrinkle in the argument, the crime was committed in the US on a non-citizen. No question it's a crime in the US, never mind the moral aspect, but in the Dominican Republic too many children are dependent on the sex trade to stay alive. I have been in plenty of places around the world that turn a blind eye to children in the sex trade; then there is the moral aspect, there are some things that are just wrong no matter what the locals ignore or allow. I

n my estimation Bob Menendez is entitled to due process, if there is enough evidence that he did what he is accused of then I say let Justice run her course.

I think some similar questions came up with the Secret Service agents who dealt with prostitutes in Columbia.

It was legal there, just as it is legal in Nevada (different details in the law, though), so I don't think that was an issue from a legal standpoint.

There were also questions about if some of the prostitutes were underage. I never saw if that got resolved. If it's legal for them to be underage in Columbia compared to what is considered underage in Nevada, would that make it a crime? I don't know. Even if not charged with a crime, I'd think they'd lose their job at least. And they might lose their job even if the prostitute was of legal US age too, that's up to the employer to decide. Also a congress person probably won't get judged by the same standards as a Secret Service person would.

If there is a case of dealing with an underage prostitute from another country in the US, then it seems that would be a crime, not that I'm a lawyer.

Anyway, there is the moral issue, and then there is the legal issue.

Good points. Suppose the age of consent it 12 in the Dominican Republic, and prostitution legal, Bob might get a legal pass, but I could see the New Jersey public still ask for him to resign, or if he doesn't vote him out. The US Senate might make the same call if the American public makes enough noise. Congress has enough image problems, pedo Senators doesn't help.