Washington – New Jersey Senate. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, have been charged by the Justice Department with conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Egypt, according to new court documents unsealed Thursday.
The Allegation of trespass Menendez was charged in federal district court in New York with conspiring a public official to act as an agent of a foreign principal, the Egyptian government and its officials. Federal law prohibits Menendez, as a public official, from serving as a foreign agent.
Menendez “promised to take a series of actions on behalf of Egypt, including the Egyptian military and intelligence officials, and conspired to do so,” said prosecutors for the meat company and his wife.
New charges against Menendez
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The new indictment alleges that Hana and Nadine Menendez “reported requests and orders from Egyptian authorities to Menendez.” Neither Hana nor Nadine Menendez registered as foreign agents or lobbyists, the Justice Department said.
Menendez, with Nadine Menendez, Hana and two New Jersey businessmen Charged last month Allegedly involved in the bribery scheme, prosecutors said the senator received lavish bribes in exchange for official acts.
Menendez and his wife were charged with three counts in the initial indictment, and he now faces a total of four. Senator Innocent to all charges during his trial in three cases last month. After the original allegations were made, he temporarily stepped down from his role leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In a statement on Thursday, Menendez said, “The government’s latest accusation flies in the face of my long struggle for human rights and democracy in Egypt and my challenging the country’s leaders on these issues, including President El-Sisi. Throughout my life, I have been loyal to only one country – the United States, my family.” A land that chose to live in democracy and freedom.”
Menendez has maintained his innocence. I again request those who know me and my record to give me an opportunity to present my case and demonstrate my innocence.
The new charging document details at least two meetings between Menendez and Hana at Manhattan restaurants in June 2018 and September 2019, in which a second unnamed Egyptian official was present.
Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez “had meetings and direct contact with numerous Egyptian officials, some of whom she understood to be intelligence officials, and received requests from them and relayed information and requests from them to Menendez.”
The alleged bribery scheme
In the initial document, prosecutors said Nadine Mendez and Hana worked in the years after they began dating to introduce him to Egyptian intelligence and military officials in an effort to confirm a “corrupt deal.” Under the deal, prosecutors alleged, Menendez and his wife would receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for favors to the Egyptian government.
The Justice Department said a search of Menendez’s New Jersey home in June 2022 turned up “the proceeds of a corrupt bribery agreement between Menendez and Nadine Menendez.”
Federal agents found more than $480,000 in cash, stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothes, closets and a safe, according to court filings. Photographs included in the indictment show a jacket bearing Menendez’s name strewn with gold bars and cash, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible that Nadine Menendez allegedly obtained through the alleged bribery conspiracy.
Nadine Menendez is accused of arranging meetings and dinners with Menendez and Egyptian officials in 2018, during which the senator promised to use her authority to “facilitate” foreign military sales and financing. on the payroll of his company.
The Justice Department’s accusations against New Jersey Gov. Bill Murphy, fellow New Jersey Sen. Calls for Menendez’s resignation have mounted, including from Cory Booker and many of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate. Following recent allegations that Menendez conspired to act as a foreign agent, Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman said the full Senate should vote to expel the New Jersey senator.
“We cannot have a foreign agent in the United States Senate,” Fetterman said in a statement. “It wasn’t a close call.”
But the senator has Resisted the pressure He vowed to resign and instead be released.
Menendez said the money found by agents during a search of his home last month was taken from his personal savings account and kept for “emergencies,” a practice he’s had for decades. He cited “my family’s history of confiscation in Cuba” to explain why he kept so much money in his home.
The most recent charges come several years after Menendez Indicted in 2015 He accepted gifts from a wealthy Democratic donor in exchange for political favors, following charges in roughly a dozen counts, including bribery and conspiracy. That case Ended in a mistrial Jurors could not reach a verdict after deliberating for more than a week.
