BREAKING: Former Sen Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years in prison

Former US Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty on all counts, including bribery, extortion, obstructing justice and acting as an illegal foreign agent, over the summer.

According to the Wall Street Journal, prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Menendez to at least 15 years in prison, while lawyers representing the former lawmaker said that a sentence of no more than eight years would be appropriate.

Menendez received bribes such as gold bars and a Mercedes convertible, and in exchange, promised to disrupt criminal proceedings in New Jersey, aid Cairo in its efforts to get hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid, and pressure a federal agency to not contest a halal meat monopoly granted to a New Jersey businessman by Egypt, prosecutors said.

Menendez spoke for 12 minutes in a New York court, saying, "I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions, but I believe in my half-century of public service I have done far more good than bad."

Menendez, who had served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until his indictment, resigned from the Senate over the summer. 

During closing arguments in the case, prosecutor Paul Monteleoni told jurors, "Mr. Menendez sold the power of his office. It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington. It wasn’t enough for him to be entrusted by the public with the power to approve billions of dollars of US military aid to foreign countries. Robert Menendez wanted all that power — but he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife."