NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Prosecutors in the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and a wealthy donor put two of the donor’s reputed former girlfriends on the witness stand Tuesday in an attempt to put Menendez’s efforts to smooth their visa applications into the context of a larger bribery scheme, with mixed results.
While Rosiell Polanco-Suera testified that Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen said he was “going to fix” her initial visa denial by talking to Menendez, the second, Svitlana Buchyk, turned her testimony into a sideshow with a combative performance, saying she was only in court “because he forced me to,” pointing at one of the prosecutors.
The visa applications of Polanco-Suera and her sister ultimately were granted after a second interview in the Dominican Republic. In between the two events, Menendez, New Jersey’s senior Democratic senator, emailed one of his staffers and told him to call the ambassador about the matter “ASAP,” the staffer testified Monday.
Using a translator for her testimony, Polanco-Suera also said she and her sister waited for hours for the first interview in November 2008 only to be dismissed by an interviewer who didn’t look at documents they had brought – which included a letter from Menendez.
The second time, she said, they had little or no wait and were approved the same day.