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That was how she met Menendez, at the IHOP in 2008 — not December 2018, as he claimed in an interview with the New York Times in 2021 — said Anton. The owner of the restaurant introduced her to the senator, he said. “They maintained a friendship,” said Anton. “She used to call him every year on his birthday. Sometimes he invited her for lunch if he was doing an event in New Jersey and she would go with one of her girlfriends.”
