article_snippet: Menendez, donor Salomon Melgen, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and her husband Paul, posed in February 2012 at a National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials gala .
article_snippet: The senator's aides admitted in 2013 that The senator had intervened a year earlier with the acting chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on The senator friend's behalf, pushing back against accusations of overbilling the Medicare and Medicaid Services system by $8.9 million.
article_snippet: The senator has counted Melgen as one of The senator closest personal friends for decades,' Enright said. '
article_snippet: The two have spent holidays together and have gone to each other’s family funerals and weddings and have exchanged personal gifts.'
article_snippet: Menendez's first high-level meeting at HHS related to Melgen's Medicare troubles occurred on June 7, 2012, according to court documents seen by the New Jersey Law Journal.
article_snippet: The government alleges that the senator and some of his staffers met with Marilyn Tavenner, who was then in charge of the agency's Medicare and Medicaid subagency.
article_snippet: Court papers also indicate Menendez followup up Menendez's first high-level meeting at HHS with a phone call, and then took Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who was then the Senate Majority Leader, to an August 2, 2012 meeting with the Department of Health and Human Services's then-secretary, Kathleen Sebelius.
highlights_snippet: New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez spokeswoman says doctor has been 'one of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez closest friends for decades' and insists everything New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez did was lawful .
  