NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his spouse had been indicted Friday on costs that they took bribes of money, gold bars and a luxurious automobile for a spread of corrupt acts, together with having the Democrat use his affect over overseas affairs to learn the authoritarian authorities of Egypt.
A search of the couple’s residence turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden money, stated prosecutors, who introduced the fees towards the 69-year-old Democrat almost six years after an earlier felony case towards him ended with a deadlocked jury.
The most recent indictment is unrelated to the sooner costs that alleged Menendez accepted lavish presents to stress authorities officers on behalf of a Florida physician.
Messages had been left for Menendez’s Senate spokesperson and his political marketing consultant. David Schertler, a lawyer for Menendez’s spouse, stated she “denies any felony conduct and can vigorously contest these costs in court docket.”
The Senate Historic Workplace says Menendez seems to be the primary sitting senator in U.S. historical past to have been indicted on two unrelated felony allegations. Menendez faces reelection subsequent yr in a bid to increase his three-decade profession in Washington as Democrats maintain a slender majority within the Senate.
The indictment alleges that Menendez offered delicate U.S. authorities data and took different steps to secretly assist Egypt, together with ghost-writing a letter on behalf of Egypt pushing different senators to carry a maintain on $300 million in assist to the nation.
In April 2020, shortly after assembly with an Egyptian official, authorities allege, Menendez additionally lobbied then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to extend American engagement in stalled negotiations involving Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to construct a dam over the Nile River, a key overseas coverage difficulty for Egypt.
Prosecutors allege Menendez and his spouse accepted a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} in bribes from three enterprise associates, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes. He additionally used his affect to stress the president to appoint a U.S. legal professional for New Jersey who would shield Daibes, a longtime good friend and distinguished New Jersey developer who confronted felony prosecution, they stated.
After Menendez known as a authorities official about Daibes’ case, in accordance with the indictment, his spouse was given a Mercedes-Benz convertible by Uribe and Hana, each mates of the senator and his spouse. The indictment says that after the acquisition was full, Nadine Menendez texted her husband to say: “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we’re the proud homeowners of a 2019 Mercedes,” with a coronary heart emoji.
Requests for remark with legal professionals for Daibes, Hana and Uribe weren’t instantly returned.
Now that he’s indicted, Menendez should step down as chairman of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee. Guidelines for the Senate Democratic caucus say that any member who’s charged with a felony should step other than a management place.
Menendez needed to step down from his place as the highest Democrat on the panel when he was indicted in 2015. He resumed the publish in 2018 when he was cleared of the fees.
The primary time Menendez was indicted, he had been accused of utilizing his political affect to assist a Florida eye physician who had lavished him with presents and marketing campaign contributions.
The brand new costs comply with a yearslong investigation that examined, amongst different issues, the dealings of a New Jersey businessman — a good friend of Menendez’s spouse — who secured sole authorization from the Egyptian authorities to certify that meat imported into that nation meets Islamic dietary necessities. Investigators additionally requested questions concerning the Menendez household’s interactions with a New Jersey developer.
Menendez’s political profession had regarded as if it is likely to be over in 2015, when a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted him on a number of costs over favors he did for a good friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen.
Menendez was accused of pressuring authorities officers to resolve a Medicare billing dispute in Melgen’s favor, securing visas for the physician’s girlfriends and serving to shield a contract the physician had to offer port-screening tools to the Dominican Republic.
Menendez has at all times maintained his innocence. His legal professionals stated marketing campaign contributions and presents from Melgen — which included journeys on his personal jet to a resort within the Dominican Republic and a trip in Paris — had been tokens of their longtime friendship, not bribes.
Prosecutors dropped the case after a jury deadlocked in November 2017 on costs together with bribery, fraud and conspiracy, and a choose dismissed some counts.
The Senate Ethics Committee later rebuked Menendez, discovering that he had improperly accepted presents, did not disclose them after which used his affect to advance Melgen’s private pursuits.
However months later, New Jersey voters returned Menendez to the Senate. He defeated a well-financed challenger in a midterm election that broke a Republican lock on energy in Washington.
Melgen was convicted of well being care fraud in 2017, however President Donald Trump commuted his jail sentence.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has held public workplace repeatedly since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union Metropolis, New Jersey. He was a state legislator and spent 14 years within the U.S. Home of Representatives. In 2006, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he grew to become governor.
Menendez first publicly disclosed that he was the topic of a brand new federal investigation final October. Prosecutors declined on the time to remark, however some particulars of their investigation emerged in information experiences and court docket data.
In 2019, federal brokers seized digital gadgets and data from the places of work of IS EG Halal, a New Jersey firm that had been named by the Egyptian authorities as the only real firm to certify that imported meat met spiritual necessities.
The designation shocked U.S. agriculture officers. Beforehand, a number of different firms had been doing that certification, however they had been dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officers in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no earlier expertise within the area.
The change occurred the identical yr that Menendez grew to become engaged to Nadine Arslanian, an acquaintance of the brand new halal certification firm’s proprietor, Hana, of Edgewater, New Jersey.
Information present Arslanian, 56, was battling foreclosures on her Bergen County property in 2018. When she and Menendez acquired engaged it started a interval of economic turnaround for Arslanian, a former marketer for a medical firm.
Inside weeks of their engagement, she integrated a enterprise, Strategic Worldwide Enterprise Consultants LLC, in accordance with state data. Her foreclosures case was dismissed quickly after. The next yr, her property included gold bars valued between $100,000 to $250,000, in accordance with a Senate disclosure type amended by Menendez in March of 2022.
Between April and June of 2022, the couple cashed out at the least a part of their valuable steel holdings, varieties present, promoting between $200,000 and $400,000 price of gold bars, whereas maintaining at the least $250,000 price of them.
An legal professional for Arslanian, David Schertler, didn’t reply to a request for remark about his shopper’s worldwide enterprise work or how she acquired the gold bars.
After information experiences final Could that federal prosecutors had been analyzing whether or not Menendez or his spouse had obtained unreported presents from the enterprise, Hana’s spokesperson denied that any U.S. official had assisted the corporate.
U.S. investigators additionally issued at the least one subpoena final spring searching for correspondence from Menendez, his spouse, or an Edgewater developer, Daibes, whose firm owns the constructing the place IS EG Halal has places of work. The subpoena, which was despatched to state Sen. Nicholas Sacco, referenced a state invoice that may have restricted improvement in sure areas alongside the Hudson River, together with the place Daibes owns property.