Sen. Bob Menendez was charged on Friday with taking extravagant gifts and gold bars from shady New Jersey business interests and indirectly leaking highly sensitive information to Egypt in a brazen bribery scheme, the second indictment in less than a decade against the powerful but scandal-plagued New Jersey Democrat.
Menendez — who was previously charged with corruption in a separate case that ended in a mistrial — took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for favors to three New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian government, according to the indictment, which was filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, 56, was also charged. She began dating the senator in 2018, and they married in 2020, according to charging papers.
The extraordinary indictment said the couple accepted “cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job” and a Mercedes-Benz convertible in return for the senator abusing his position as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee to advance corrupt Egyptian interests.
Menendez, 69, denied the charges in a lengthy statement, declaring that his opponents “simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator and serve with honor and distinction.” He said he was the victim of a smear campaign.
Menendez planned to temporarily step down as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “He has a right to due process and a fair trial,” Schumer said in a statement.
But in a sign of the grave political peril facing Menendez, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey issued a statement late on Friday afternoon calling on the senator to resign, and describing the indictment as “deeply disturbing.”
“These are serious charges that implicate national security,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in the statement, adding that though he respects the criminal process, the allegations “compromise the ability of Sen. Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state.”
The indictment said Menendez took his bribery so far as to secretly edit and ghost-write a letter on behalf of Egypt seeking to convince other senators to release a hold on $300 million in aid to the authoritarian nation.
In 2018, Menendez vowed to use his power to facilitate military sales and financing to Egypt in exchange for a Cairo-tied New Jersey businessman hiring his wife, the U.S. attorney’s office charged.
The senator also provided his wife with private State Department information about the American embassy in Cairo, which she passed on to the businessman, Wael Hana, who forwarded it to the Egyptian government, according to court papers.
“Although this information was not classified, it was deemed highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public,” said the indictment.
Menendez is one of 13 U.S. senators in history to be indicted, according to the Senate Historical Office. He appears to be the first senator ever indicted in two separate cases while in office.
Menendez has served in the Senate since 2006 and as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee for the last decade. The three-count indictment against Menendez followed a years-long probe by federal prosecutors.
“Constituent service is part of any legislator’s job — Sen. Menendez is no different,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said at a news conference.
Williams said Menendez’s official website outlines how he cannot compel an agency to act in someone’s favor, influence matters involving a private business, or involve himself in criminal matters or cases.
“But we allege that, behind the scenes, Sen. Menendez was doing those things for certain people — people who were bribing him and his wife,” Williams said.
Menendez and his wife face counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion. If convicted, they could face up to 45 years in federal prison. They are expected to appear in court next Wednesday.
In his statement, Menendez said he was “confident that this matter will be successfully resolved.”
“I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent,” he added.
His wife also denied any wrongdoing, said her lawyer, Danny Onorato.
Among the allegations, Menendez is accused of intervening in a state insurance fraud case in exchange for a black Mercedes-Benz for his wife.
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” the senator’s wife texted him after the deal, according to the indictment.
Federal agents who searched Menendez’s home last year as part of the probe uncovered more than $480,000 in cash crammed into sometimes curious locations — including closets and clothing — and more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, according to charging papers.
The indictment included images of the gleaming gold bars and jackets carrying Menendez’s name that were covered in piles of cash.
“Some of the cash was stuffed in the senator’s pockets,” Williams said.
The three businessmen — the Egyptian-raised Hana; Jose Uribe, who works in trucking and insurance; and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer and bank founder — were also charged in the case. They each face a maximum prison term of 25 years if convicted.
Lawyers for Uribe and Daibes did not immediately reply to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Hana, Amelia Fogg, said in an email: “We are still reviewing the charges but based upon our initial review, they have absolutely no merit.”
Hana plans to return from Egypt to appear in court on Wednesday, Fogg said.
Before Menendez, the last Democratic senator to be indicted was Harrison Williams, also of New Jersey, who was convicted in 1981 in a bribery case, and died in 2001.
In 2015, Menendez was indicted in a federal bribery case. The case culminated in a hung jury, and prosecutors dropped the charges.
“I’ve made my share of mistakes,” he said in 2017, after a federal judge in New Jersey announced the hung jury. “But my mistakes were never a crime.”
He was reelected in 2018. He plans to run for reelection again next year.
Court papers said Menendez’s relationship with the businessmen started in 2018 and continued through last year. His wife had been friends with Hana for many years, according to the 39-page indictment.
Menendez is accused of intervening in an insurance fraud probe connected to Uribe, and recommending the appointment of a U.S. attorney in New Jersey who he believed would stall a criminal investigation into Daibes.
In another scheme, the senator allegedly pressured a U.S. Agriculture Department official to protect an arrangement giving Hana’s company an exclusive monopoly on halal exports from the U.S. to Egypt.
Before securing the monopoly, Hana had no experience with the halal certification, charging papers said.
Menendez meddled on Hana’s behalf two days after meeting him in his office and going out to a steakhouse, according to the indictment.
Court papers said the Agriculture Department official pushed back on Menendez, declaring the halal monopoly detrimental to U.S. interests, but that Hana’s business — IS EG Halal — kept its monopoly. (IS EG Halal did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)
“Seems like halal went through,” Nadine Menendez said in a text to her husband, according to the complaint. “It might be a fantastic 2019 all the way around.”
With help from her husband, she set up an LLC where she planned to route bribe proceeds, the indictment charged.
Nadine Menendez texted a relative, “every time I’m in a middle person for a deal I am asking to get paid and this is my consulting company,” according to the complaint.
