- A DOJ unit focused on foreign agent registration was a ‘sleepy enforcement agency’ before concerns arose about 2016 Russian election interference, ex-official says.
- Menendez indictment further expands prosecutors’ enforcement of decades-old laws on foreign agents.
WASHINGTON − The deal was sealed over meetings and dinner, federal prosecutors say. Officials representing Egypt’s authoritarian government wanted a powerful American’s help with weapons sales and financing. Sen. Robert Menendez and his then-girlfriend Nadine Arslanian said the senator could facilitate both.
In exchange, a New Jersey middleman − a struggling Egyptian-born entrepreneur named Wael “Will” Hana − allegedly promised the future Mrs. Menendez a low- or no-show job. He would later sweeten the pot with wads of cash and gold bars.
In the middle of one of many encounters, Menendez − the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee − and Arslanian joined an Egyptian intelligence official, Hana, and an associate for dinner at a posh Washington steakhouse.
Arslanian boldly cut to the chase. “What else can the love of my life do for you?” she asked.
The offer is part of the story prosecutors unspooled in a shocking indictment charging the couple and Hana with conspiring to use New Jersey’s senior senator as an eager tool of Egypt’s government. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the foreign agent charge in a New York federal courthouse in October, and to bribery and extortion charges the previous month.
The indictment represents the most serious criminal charges filed against a sitting U.S. senator in recent memory, alleging that Menendez sold his position and influence to a foreign power for tawdry personal gain.
The indictment offers an intimate look at how a powerful lawmaker allegedly undermined national security for financial gain.
US and Egypt are close but strained allies
For decades, Egypt had been a stalwart U.S. ally − and a top recipient of American aid in one of the world’s most volatile regions. The relationship has deteriorated sharply in recent years over U.S. concerns about Egypt’s human rights record; the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who took power in a military coup, holds an estimated 60,000 political prisoners.
From his perch as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez had huge sway over decisions to continue − or sometimes hold back − hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Egypt, as well as billions more in weapons sales and financing.
“A member of Congress swears an oath to the United States,” said David Laufman, a former federal prosecutor and chief of counter-intelligence for the Justice Department. “Their duty of loyalty, without division or equivocation, is to the United States government, not to serve the interests of foreign military or foreign intelligence services.”
In a statement to USA TODAY, Menendez vehemently rejected the allegations.
“The government’s latest charge is as outrageous as it is absurd,” Menendez said, asserting he has a long record of challenging Egyptian leaders on issues like human rights. “I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country − the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom.”
A lawyer for Hana told USA TODAY his client “is innocent and has nothing to hide.”
“Moreover, the recent allegation that Mr. Hana was part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Sen. Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is, as the evidence will show, completely false,” said attorney Lawrence Lustberg.
The senator recently boasted that he’s been able to maintain his top-secret security clearance despite the federal charges. Requests for comment from lawyers for Menendez were not answered. An attorney for his wife declined to comment.
Gold bars, fingerprints, and famous company
Menendez and Arslanian were married in October 2020.
Prosecutors say they found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars during a raid on the couple’s home, with DNA, fingerprints, and serial numbers linking the haul to other alleged participants named in the bribery and foreign influence indictments.
The Menendez charges come as the Justice Department probes whether President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, by failing to register while working in the U.S. on behalf of companies based in China and Ukraine.
The department has also pursued FARA prosecutions against Paul Manafort, former President Donald Trump’s one-time campaign manager, and Michael Flynn, a top national security adviser to the campaign. The prosecutions were part of a growing effort to use the once-staid foreign agent law against big-league targets.
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