Another Report Claims Alleged Menendez 'Prostitutes' Were Paid to Lie

Well, here we are. Another week, another crazy twist in controversy surrounding Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J) and his alleged involvement with underage Dominican prostitutes.

From the Associated Press:

Three women were paid to falsely claim in videotaped interviews that they had sex for money with a U.S. senator in the Dominican Republic, a spokesman for the police said Monday.

The women, whose claims generated media attention in the United States, were hired by a Dominican attorney to make the videotaped statements, spokesman Maximo Baez told reporters. Two of the women received about $425 and the other was paid about $300, he said.

Authorities are seeking to interrogate the attorney, Melanio Figueroa, about the payments and have not determined his motive or whether he was in turn paid by someone else to set up the interviews, Baez said.

[…]

The police spokesman was making his most detailed comments to date on an investigation into the source of allegations that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez had sex with prostitutes, including two who were underage at the time, while in the Dominican Republic with his friend and campaign contributor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, a south Florida doctor, and with Vinicio Castillo Seman, an attorney whose family is politically prominent in the Dominican Republic. Castillo and Menendez have denied hiring prostitutes.

In response to Monday's report, The Daily Caller, the site that published the aforementioned videotaped statements, claims that they're still investigating.

"TheDC has not independently verified the identities of the women involved in the Dominican National Police investigation, but will continue to investigate the case," TheDC's Vince Coglianese writes. "A statement released by the police made no mention of TheDC."

This is the second time this month that a major news group has reported that Sen. Mendendez' accusers were paid to frame him.

Recall that the Washington Post claimed earlier this month that 23-year-old Nexis de los Santos Santana supposedly appeared in the aforementioned video to accuse the senator of sexual improprieties. She later told Dominican authorities in an affidavit that she was paid to help frame the U.S. senator, according to early versions of the Post report.

However, The Daily Caller responded to the Post’s supposed scoop by accusing the left-leaning organization of having the wrong woman.

“[T]he prostitute in the Post’s story does not appear to be one of the women we interviewed in 2012,” TheDC said in a statement.

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Featured image Getty Images. This post has been updated.