U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife had been indicted in New York on federal bribery prices for allegedly accepting tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in money, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, residence mortgage funds, and extra in a “corrupt relationship” with three Garden State businessmen.
The three-count indictment unsealed Friday alleges that the Democrat Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt,” and pressured a U.S. Agriculture Department official to guard a enterprise monopoly in Egypt for one of the three businessmen.
It additionally accuses Menendez, 69, of utilizing his workplace and affect to disrupt a felony probe in New Jersey of a second businessman.
And, it prices that Menendez really helpful that President Joe Biden nominate a sure particular person as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey as a result of the senator believed that particular person may very well be influenced by Menendez to disrupt the banking crime prosecution of the third businessman, Fred Daibes, a longtime fundraiser for the senator.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez earlier than a gathering with the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, on the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, Aug. 24, 2023.
Danil Shamkin | Nurphoto | Getty Images
“This investigation is very much ongoing,” stated Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams at a press convention on the costs in opposition to the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, in addition to in opposition to the three different males: Daibes, Wael “Will” Hana, and Jose Uribe.
“We are not done,” Williams stated.
Menendez, who’s up for reelection in 2024, agreed to step down as chairman of the highly effective Senate Foreign Relations Committee because of the prices, in response to a supply near him who spoke with NBC News. Senate Democratic Caucus guidelines mandate that members charged with a felony should quickly cede their chair positions till their case is resolved.
As Foreign Relations chairman, Menendez had affect over the Executive Branch’s selections to supply army gross sales and help to Egypt.
He was appointed to his Senate seat in January 2006 by then-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who had vacated that seat after being elected governor. Menendez was elected to the seat later that 12 months, and since then has twice received re-election as New Jersey’s senior senator.
Menendez married Nadine, whose maiden title is Arslanian, in October 2020 after relationship for just below three years. She was “for many years” a buddy of Hana, who’s initially from Egypt, in response to the indictment.
The indictment says that after she started relationship Menendez, she and Hana launched the senator to “Egyptian intelligence and military officials … for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement” to bribe him and Nadine to learn Egypt with army gross sales and financing.
Menendez, Nadine, and the opposite defendants are on account of seem Wednesday morning in Manhattan federal court docket.
The indictment says that in a June 2022 raid on the Menendezes’ New Jersey residence and a protected deposit field, federal brokers discovered money, gold and a luxurious automobile that had been the “fruits of [the couple’s] corrupt bribery agreement” with the businessmen.
“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,” the indictment stated.
“Some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints and/or DNA of Daibes or his driver.
Over $480,000 in money—a lot of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothes, closets, and a protected—was found within the residence, alongside with over $70,000 in NADINE MENENDEZ’s protected deposit field.
Source: SDNY
In addition to the cash, agents also seized 81.5 ounces of gold bars. At the current spot price, those bars are worth about $155,000.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of those items, as well as the residence of the Menendezes in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Menendez and Nadine are charged with three counts: Conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
The three other defendants are charged with the first two of those counts.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, arrive for a reception honoring Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife, Mareva Mitsotakis, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 16, 2022.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
Menendez adamantly denied the criminal allegations, accused prosecutors of attacking Nadine “for the longstanding friendships” she had, and vowed to continue performing his duties as senator.
“I stay targeted on persevering with this necessary work and is not going to be distracted by baseless allegations,” Menendez said in a statement.
This is the second time Menendez has been indicted on federal bribery charges.
In 2015, he was hit with 14 criminal counts related to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lavish gifts and campaign donations he received from a Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen.
Melgen later was convicted of Medicare fraud and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
However, the prosecution against Menendez was dropped after his trial ended in a hung jury.
The new indictment says that Menendez and his wife from at least 2018 through 2022 accepted “tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in bribes in trade for utilizing Menendez’s energy and affect as Senator” to benefit the three other defendants and the government of Egypt.
“Those bribes included money, gold, funds towards a house mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job [for Nadine], a luxurious automobile, and different issues of worth,” in response to the indictment.
Two of the gold bars DAIBES offered are depicted within the pictures.
Source: SDNY
The indictment alleges that Menendez sought to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution of Daibes by urging Biden to nominate Phillip Selinger as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey because “Menendez believed [he] may very well be influenced by Menendez with respect to Daibes’s case.”
Sellinger later was confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. He was not identified by name in the indictment, but the timing and circumstances of his nomination track the timeline of the indictment.
A spokesperson for Sellinger in a statement to CNBC said, “U.S. Attorney Sellinger was recused from the Daibes matter and all exercise by the workplace associated to that matter was dealt with appropriately in response to the rules of federal prosecution.”
Daibes pleaded guilty to banking crimes in 2022. He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on Oct. 26 in Newark, New Jersey, federal court.
The White House did not have an immediate comment on the Menendez indictment.
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during a press conference after announcing that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was indicted on corruption charges charges at the SDNY office on September 22, 2023 in New York City.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld | Getty Images
Nadine’s lawyer David Schertler, in a statement to WNBC, said, “Ms. Menendez denies any wrongdoing and will defend vigorously in opposition to these allegations in court docket.”
A spokesman for Hana said, “We are nonetheless reviewing the costs however based mostly upon our preliminary evaluate, they’ve completely no advantage.”
A lawyer for Daibes said, “We are assured that Mr. Daibes can be utterly exonerated of all prices.”
Daides is a real estate developer and the founder of a bank. He is also a business associate of Hana’
Uribe works in the trucking and insurance business. He had a prior fraud conviction, and is an associate and friend of Hana.
The non-profit advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics on Friday called for Menendez to resign.
“The stain of corruption repeatedly taints Menendez,” said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. “CREW has for years raised considerations about Menendez doubtlessly promoting his place, and the Senate Ethics Committee beforehand discovered severe misconduct by him.”
“The conduct outlined in immediately’s indictment and the proof introduced are much more damning,” Bookbinder said.
Menendez was setting up a legal defense fund in connection with the criminal probe before he was indicted, according to NBC New York.
That fund appears to be run directly by Menendez and his longtime campaign treasurer John Palumbo, according to a filing sent to the Internal Revenue Service.
The document, signed by Palumbo in July, lists Menendez as a “grantor” of the fund and the campaign treasurer as a “trustee.”
The fund in documents says it will pay “bills in connection with authorized proceedings incurred in connection with service to the U.S. Senate.”
The new indictment against Menendez comes nearly a decade after the Supreme Court began making it more difficult for federal prosecutors to win corruption cases against elected officials and others for acts related to government services.
Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was convicted of corruption in 2014, only to have his conviction overturned two years later by the Supreme Court in a ruling.
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court found that prosecutors had applied what justices called “a boundless” definition of what constitutes an official act.
In 2020, the Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling reversed the fraud convictions of two aides to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who played key roles in the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal.
Justice Elena Kagan in that decision wrote that Bridget Anne Kelly and William Baroni “couldn’t have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud legal guidelines” because the scheme did not “purpose to acquire cash or property.”
Last year, another unanimous Supreme Court ruling tossed out the conviction of Joseph Percoco, the manager of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign, on an honest services charge.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Emma Kinery