article_snippet: Menendez, 61, has seen pressure from the Obama administration over his positions on Cuba and Iran.
article_snippet: His 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: 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: Tricia Enright, The senator's communications director, told Daily Mail Online in a statement that 'Tricia Enright, Menendez's communications director believe all of the Senator's actions have been appropriate and lawful and the facts will ultimately confirm that.' '
article_snippet: Any actions taken by Senator Menendez or his office have been to appropriately address public policy issues and not for any other reason.'
article_snippet: the Senator has counted Dr. 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: The senator'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 a reporter staffers met with Marilyn Tavenner, who was then in charge of the agency's Medicare and Medicaid subagency.
article_snippet: Court papers also indicate The senator 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 .
  