Sen. Bob Menendez chairs a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on July 26, 2023.Photo:Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty
Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty
The superseding indictment alleges Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt," news outlets includingReutersreport.
Bob Menendez and wife Nadine.Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Menendez and his wife were charged last month following an investigation into the couple’s business dealings with three men who have ties to Egypt’s government.
The couple were originally charged with three counts: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
The initial39-page indictmentalleges that the senator, 69, and Nadine, 56, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in exchange for protecting the three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — and to “benefit” the government of Egypt. Some of those bribes, prosecutors allege, came in the form of envelopes stuffed with cash, gold bars, and luxury vehicles.
Court filings allege that a search warrant of the Menendez home and safe deposit box executed in June 2022 turned up hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
“Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe — was discovered in the home, along with over $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box,” the indictment alleges.
Menendez has since told reporters the cash came from his “personal savings.”
The indictment further alleges that two of the men helped finance a 2019 Mercedez-Benz C-300 convertible worth more than $60,000 for Nadine in the wake of a 2018 incident in whichshe struck and killed a man.
Nadine and Bob Menendez at a White House state dinner on June 22, 2023.Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty
Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty
Menendez was until recently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has served as a senator since 2006. Prior to that, he was a U.S. Representative and a state senator, a state representative, and the mayor of Union City, New Jersey.
Many lawmakers havecalled on Menendez— who is up for reelection in 2024 — to resign in the wake of the indictment, though he has said he has no plans to step down.
source: people.com
