New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez received an additional charge in the ongoing investigation against him and his wife, Nadine Menendez – with the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who prosecutors now accuse of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
The new charge came as part of a superseding indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Thursday. In it, prosecutors allege Menendez violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, adding one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign principal for the Egyptian government to his earlier three-count indictment.
The superseding indictment alleges that Menendez “secured sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps that covertly assisted the government of Egypt,” news outlets including Reuters reported.
Sen. Bob Menendez, wife charged with bribery after allegedly receiving ‘cash, gold, luxury vehicle’ and more
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Bob Menendez and wife Nadine.
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Menendez and his wife were indicted last month following an investigation into the couple’s business dealings with three men with ties to the Egyptian government.
The couple was originally charged with three counts: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under the guise of official law.
The original 39-page indictment alleges that the senator, 69, and Nadine, 56, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for the protection of three businessmen — Wael Han, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — and for “profits” from the Egyptian government. Some of those bribes, prosecutors allege, came in the form of envelopes stuffed with cash, gold bullion and luxury vehicles.
Senator Bob Menendez has pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and corruption charges
Court filings state that a June 2022 search warrant for the Menendez home and safe found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
“Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe — was discovered in the home, along with over $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe,” the indictment states.
Menendez told reporters afterward that the money came from his “personal savings.”
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The indictment further alleges that the two men helped finance a 2019 Mercedez-Benz C-300 convertible worth more than $60,000 for Nadine after a 2018 incident in which she hit and killed a man.
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Nadine and Bob Menendez at a gala dinner at the White House on June 22, 2023.
Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty
Menendez was until recently the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate, and he held the position of senator since 2006. Prior to that, he was a US Representative and State Senator, State Representative and Mayor of Union City, New Jersey.
Many lawmakers have called on Menendez — who is up for re-election in 2024 — to resign after the indictment, though he has said he has no plans to step down.
After Thursday’s indictment, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman asked fellow senators to help oust Menendez, writing in part, “He should have gone a long time ago… We cannot have an alleged foreign agent in the United States Senate.”
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Source: HIS Education