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Sen. Bob Menendez and wife, Nadine, indicted on bribery charges [1]
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Date: 2023-09
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife have been charged with bribery over the alleged receipt of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in return for the use of his influence to enrich three New Jersey businessmen and benefit the Egyptian government, according to an indictment in Manhattan federal court that was made public Friday.
The charges include conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The bribes the couple received included “cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value,” the indictment alleges.
Federal agents said they discovered many of the items when they executed search warrants on the couple’s home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in June 2022. They found more than $480,000 in cash “much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,” including jackets bearing the senator’s name that were hanging in his closet, as well as more than $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box, the indictment alleges.
Federal investigators allege they found money stuffed in Menendez's jackets when they executed a search warrant in June 2022. USDC Southern District of New York
Agents also allegedly discovered a Mercedes-Benz convertible worth more than $60,000 that New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana and Jose Uribe gave to Menendez's wife in exchange for the senator’s interference in a state prosecution of Uribe’s associate and investigation into an employee whom Uribe referred to as a relative. Federal agents also found gold bars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the senator's home that were provided by Hana and another businessman, Fred Daibes. All three businessmen were also charged in the indictment.
Menendez will step down as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee while the case proceeds, a source close to him said.
Menendez dismissed the allegations against him in a statement, saying prosecutors have “misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office.”
“I remain focused on continuing this important work and will not be distracted by baseless allegations,” he said.
Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that she “denies any wrongdoing and will defend vigorously against these allegations in court.”
Federal investigators allege Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., received bribes in the form of gold bars. USDC Southern District of New York
The senator and his co-defendants are expected to appear in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in lower Manhattan, at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, and will be arraigned later that day.
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced the charges at a news conference Friday. Williams noted that Menendez's Senate website says he can't compel an agency to act in someone's favor, influence matters involving a private business or get involved in criminal matters, "but we allege that behind the scenes, Sen. Menendez was doing those things for certain people — the people who were bribing him and his wife," he said.
The investigation in the case is ongoing, Williams said, asking that anyone with knowledge of the matter call the FBI's tip line.
Among the allegations in the indictment is that Menendez "provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt." It also says the senator pressured an official at the U.S. Agriculture Department for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to Hana, who is an Egyptian American, by Egypt.
According to the indictment, Hana and Nadine Menendez "were friends for many years" before she started dating the senator. In early 2018, she informed Hana that she was dating Menendez and "in the following months and years," they worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to the senator "for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement" in which Hana, with assistance from the two other businessmen, "provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes" to the senator and his wife "in exchange for Menendez's acts and breaches of duty to benefit the Government of Egypt, Hana, and others, including with respect to foreign military sales and foreign military financing," the filing alleges.
In around March of 2018, Menendez met with Egyptian military officials "at a meeting arranged and attended by his then-girlfriend Nadine Menendez and her friend Hana" at the senator's office in Washington, D.C., the indictment says. The meeting did not involve professional staff from his Senate office or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In May 2018, the indictment alleges, the senator sought "non-public information regarding the number and nationality of persons serving at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt" from the State Department, which was considered "highly sensitive" because it could "pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public." Without informing any of his staff on Capitol Hill or the State Department, he texted that information to his then-girlfriend, Nadine. She forwarded it to Hana, who then forwarded it to an Egyptian government official, the filing alleges.
In March 2020, Nadine Menendez texted an Egyptian official that "anytime you need anything you have my number and we will make everything happen," the indictment says. A few days later, she arranged for the senator to meet with that official, whom Nadine referred to as "the general" to discuss negotiations over a dam on the Nile River in the region of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Eventually, the senator reached out to the secretaries of Treasury and State in a letter saying he was writing "to express my concern about the stalled negotiations."
The indictment also alleges Menendez “promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty to recommend that the President nominate an individual for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez believed" he could influence regarding the federal prosecution of New Jersey developer Daibes.
Money allegedly found in Menendez's jackets during a June 2022 search warrant, according to federal investigators. USDC Southern District of New York
A spokesperson for Hana said they are reviewing the charges, but "based upon our initial review, they have absolutely no merit." Daibes' lawyer said in a statement, "Based upon our review, we are confident that Mr. Daibes will be completely exonerated of all charges."
The indictment says Menendez and his wife will have to forfeit "to the U.S. any and all property, real and personal, that constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the commission of said offenses" if convicted and the forfeitures are approved by a judge. That would include their home in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; the Mercedes-Benz convertible, more than $486,000 seized from the home, nearly $80,000 seized from a safe deposit box, and several gold bars taken from their home.
The indictment comes after a yearlong corruption probe led by Williams's office. Menendez has previously denied any wrongdoing, saying in May, “I am sure it is going to end up in absolutely nothing."
The indictment is the second the senator has faced since he was elected to the Senate in 2006. He was charged in 2015 with illegally accepting favors from a Florida eye doctor, including flights on a private jet, three nights at a five-star hotel in Paris and more than $700,000 in political contributions for him and the Democratic Party.
The case ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors decided not to retry him.
Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to be indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations, according to data compiled by the Senate Historical Office. The senator, was elected to a third term with 54% of the vote, is up for re-election next year.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-bob-menendez-indicted-federal-charges-rcna111447
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