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Menendez Accused of Brazen Bribery Plot, Taking Cash and Gold
The governor of New Jersey called on Senator Robert Menendez to resign. The senator stepped down from his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee.
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Menendez Indicted on Federal Corruption Charges
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife have been charged with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Senator Menendez, the senior U.S. senator from New Jersey and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe and Daibes. The indictment alleges that through that relationship, the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for Senator Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen, and to benefit the government of Egypt. The indictment alleges that Hana, Uribe and Daibes provided bribes in the form of cash, gold, home mortgage payments, a low-show or a no-show job for Nadine Menendez, a Mercedes-Benz and other things of value to the senator and his wife.
Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged on Friday with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including bars of gold bullion, to wield his power abroad and at home.
The three-count federal indictment depicted a brazen plan hatched during furtive dinners, in text messages and on encrypted calls — much of it aimed at increasing U.S. assistance to Egypt and aiding businessmen in New Jersey.
Mr. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, is accused of acting as a go-between, passing messages to an American-Egyptian businessman, Wael Hana, who maintained close connections with Egyptian military and intelligence officials, the indictment said. In one text, to an Egyptian general, Mr. Hana referred to the senator, who held sway over military sales, financing and other aid, as “our man.”
Mr. Menendez, in a strongly worded rebuke to prosecutors, said that he was confident the matter would be “successfully resolved once all of the facts are presented.”
Friday’s charges described an intermingling of the bare-knuckle, back-room dealings of Mr. Menendez’s home state of New Jersey and delicate matters of security in the Middle East. They represent the latest episode in a decades-long political career that took Mr. Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, from the Union City, N.J., school board to the halls of the Senate, a career marked by accusations of corruption and an earlier federal indictment that ended in a hung jury.
The new charges threaten Mr. Menendez’s vast political power, as well as his freedom.
Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, a close Democratic ally, called on Mr. Menendez to resign, an admonition that unleashed a torrent of similar messages from political leaders throughout the state. Mr. Menendez insisted that he would not heed them. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said in a statement Friday evening.
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