"Tuesday’s announcement by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) that he would vote against the Iran deal, making him the second Senate Democrat to oppose the White House’s signature foreign policy initiative, was a surprise to no one."

"But in recent months, Menendez has pursued one goal that probably requires more of his time and attention than the Iran nuclear deal, the needs of his constituents in New Jersey, or managing his relationship with the Senate’s Democratic caucus: staying out of federal prison.

Menendez is literally fighting for his freedom after being indicted in April on corruption charges. Mounting a legal defense hasn’t come cheap. By the second quarter of 2015, he raised over $2.8 million. And, as noted by a number of news outlets, many of those contributions came from hawkish pro-Israel donors.

Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire and GOP megadonor who advocated nuking Iran as a negotiating tactic, gave $10,000, the maximum legal contributions, to Menendez’s defense, as did his wife, Miriam. Hillary Clinton donor and fellow Iran deal opponent Haim Saban, and his wife Cheryl, each contributed $5,000. And billionaires Mortimer B. Zuckerman and Seth Klarman also gave $5,000.

Those figures don’t even begin to take into full account the funds directed to Menendez’s legal defense at the urging of AIPAC’s leadership.

In March, The New York Times reported that a quarter of the funds raised by the end of 2014 came from “political donors who have also given to pro-Israel political action committees.”"

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