Federal prosecutors recently amended their indictment against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and his wife to include new charges of conspiring to have Mr. Menendez act as an agent of Egypt.
The superseding indictment (pdf) was filed on Oct. 12 against Mr. Menendez in federal court in Manhattan, charging him with failing to register as required by the U.S. government as “an agent of a foreign principal.”
Even if Mr. Menendez had declared himself to be an agent of a foreign government, he would still have been in violation of his position as a member of Congress.
Representatives from Mr. Menendez’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The indictment alleges that the conspiracy began in January of 2018 and continued until June 2022. An Egyptian intelligence official allegedly visited with Mr. Menendez, his wife, and their business associate Wael Hana in Menendez’s Senate office in Washington in May of 2019.
According to the indictment, during the conversation, they discussed an American citizen who had been gravely injured in an airstrike conducted by the Egyptian military in 2015 using an Apache helicopter manufactured in the United States.
This incident and the belief of some senators that the Egyptian government was not willing to appropriately recompense the injured American citizen led them to object to supplying Egypt with certain military aid.
If Mr. Menendez helped handle the situation, the Egyptian official texted Mr. Hana shortly after their meeting in Washington, “he will sit very comfortably.” According to the indictment, Mr. Hana’s response was, “Orders, consider it done.”
The fresh accusation comes on the heels of a recent allegation that the Democrat and his wife accepted bribes of cash, gold bars, and a luxury car from three businessmen in exchange for the senator’s assistance and influence in foreign affairs.
The indictment outlined the June 2022 search warrants executed by federal agents on the New Jersey residences of Mr. and Mrs. Menendez, and these searches reportedly yielded evidence of bribery agreements involving the couple, Mr. Hana, and others.
The evidence found included substantial sums of cash, gold, a luxury vehicle, and home furnishings. Over $480,000 in cash, concealed in envelopes and hidden throughout the premises, was discovered, along with over $70,000 in Ms. Menendez’s safe deposit box.
Additionally, envelopes were discovered inside jackets bearing Mr. Menendez’s name and stored in his closet.
During the same authorized search, agents also identified home furnishings provided by Mr. Hana and others, as well as a luxury vehicle registered to former insurance agent, Jose Uribe in the garage, and gold bars with a combined value exceeding one hundred thousand dollars.
Menendez’s Plea
Mr. Menendez appeared in court on Sept. 27 and pleaded not guilty to bribery charges leveled at him on Sept. 22.
A defiant Mr. Menendez, who resigned as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted last week, asserts that allegations that he abused his position to enrich himself are without merit. He has said that he’s confident he’ll be cleared and has no plans to leave the Senate.
This is Mr. Menendez’s second corruption case in a decade; in 2017, jurors failed to reach a verdict in a trial involving similar allegations.
Mr. Menendez said during a Sept. 25 press briefing that the accusations leveled against him by prosecutors are categorically false and that the evidence found in his home was money kept on hand because of his family’s history with communism, and he asked for the presumption of innocence in his case.
“A cornerstone of the foundation of American democracy and our justice system is the principle that all people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. All people,” Mr. Menendez told a group of reporters. “I asked for nothing more and deserve nothing less. The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system.”
Calls for Menendez to Step Down
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who previously shied away from calling on Mr. Menendez to step down, changed his tune on Sept. 27, saying in a statement posted to X: “Leaders in New Jersey, including the Governor and my Senate colleague Cory Booker, have made it clear that Sen. Menendez can no longer serve. He should step down.”
Mr. Durbin’s post was made after his Sept. 24 statement in which he called the claims against Mr. Menendez serious but didn’t call for his resignation.
“This is a very serious charge. There’s no question about it,” Mr. Durbin said when asked whether Mr. Menendez should resign during CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But it bears reminding us of what I have said about the indictments against Donald Trump, equally serious charges. These are, in fact, indictments that have to be proven under the rule of law.”
Mr. Menendez’s fellow senator from New Jersey, Mr. Booker, made headlines when he released a statement on Sept. 26 offering his take on his embattled colleague, who has been in the Senate since 2006 and is currently working his way through his third term. Mr. Booker praised Mr. Menendez but said he should leave office.
He described Sen. Menendez as “intellectually gifted, tough, passionate, and deeply empathic” and said he valued their working relationship and friendship: “As senators, we operate in the public trust. That trust is essential to our ability to do our work and perform our duties for our constituents.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
