CNN
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New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was charged on Friday with corruption-related offenses for the second time in 10 years.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, are accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes” in exchange for the senator’s influence, according to the newly unsealed federal indictment.
Prosecutors allege the bribes included gold, cash, home mortgage payments, compensation for a “low-or-no-show job” and a luxury vehicle.
This is the second set of corruption charges levied against Menendez by the Justice Department in a decade. He previously fought off conspiracy, bribery and honest services fraud related to alleged personal favors.
Menendez is up for reelection next year. He has been in the Senate since 2006.
Senate Democratic Caucus rules will force Menendez to step aside as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but he can still serve on the panel.
Menendez slammed the indictment in a statement.
US District Court Southern District of New York
In or about June 2022, federal agents executed search warrants on the New Jersey home and the safe deposit box of ROBERT MENENDEZ and NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendants. In conducting these court-authorized searches, agents found certain of the fruits of MENENDEZ’s and NADINE MENENDEZ’s corrupt bribery agreement with WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” JOSE URIBE, and FRED DAIBES, the defendants, including cash, gold, the luxury vehicle, and home furnishings. 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. Some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints and/or DNA of DAIBES or his driver. Other of the envelopes were found inside jackets bearing MENENDEZ’s name and hanging in his closet, as depicted below.
“For years, forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave. Since this investigation was leaked nearly a year ago, there has been an active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists,” he said.
“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent,” he added. “They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.”
Menendez also previously set up a legal defense fund. Beginning in April, his wife sold gold bars worth as much as $400,000, according to the senator’s most recent financial disclosure form.
Menendez is charged with three alleged crimes, including being on the receiving end of a bribery conspiracy. The conspiracy counts also charge his wife Nadine, and three people described as New Jersey associates and businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.
Menendez and the other defendants will appear in court at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
The group is accused of coordinating to use Menendez’s power as a US senator to benefit them personally and to benefit Egypt.
In the indictment, prosecutors accuse Menendez of trying to sway the president’s choice of the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey to benefit one of the business associates and to pressure the Department of Agriculture to protect a business monopoly another contact had from Egypt.
The Department of Agriculture in 2019 had contacted Egypt to object to it giving Menendez’s contact, Hana, monopoly rights related to supplying halal meat to the US.
Yet Hana met Menendez in his office along with others, including an Egyptian intelligence official, in May 2019, asking for help fending off the US agency’s opposition. The group went to a Washington, DC, steakhouse for dinner that evening, the indictment said.
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Read More: Sen. Bob Menendez and wife indicted on bribery charges; DOJ seizes gold bars and