Dead End: Crime and Politics

Friends of Dead End, Nancy Solomon here. This Wednesday I’m hosting an event at WNYC in NYC – at 7 pm. It’s all about the history of FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a recent series by On The Media. After years of reporting on far-right militias, co-host Micah Loewinger knew that extremist groups often showed up after natural disasters to recruit, fundraise, and spit-shine their public image. But it wasn’t clear why they hated FEMA so much. After digging around in right-wing media archives, it became clear that the anti-FEMA lore went back decades.

It was an elegant scheme, but soon cracks began to appear. The FBI watches Menendez have a dinner with Egyptian spies, they find gold bars in a closet, and a foreign influence scheme unfolds. Menendez faces the trial of his life, and we ask: why would a man at the top of the political world risk everything? And is our political system partly to blame? Can a senator who is not wealthy succeed in a political system that is infused with gifts, luxury trips and money?

As Menendez walks free from his first corruption trial, he meets a new love—Nadine Arslanian. Nadine was a stay at home mom in Englewood cliffs, New Jersey. She drove her kids to a private French school in Manhattan – and had been spotted with cast members of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Within weeks of meeting the Senator, she’s arranging off-the-books meetings with Egyptian generals. What started as a rebound romance turns into the centerpiece of an international bribery case.

We trace Bob Menendez’s rise from a tough New Jersey neighborhood to the heights of U.S. politics. With stories from those who knew and worked with him, we explore his brand as a relentless fighter—and how an earlier bribery indictment in 2015 sent him off the rails.

The latest update from Nancy Solomon and Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery