Embattled New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez dodged questions Monday about whether he would run again in November, but faced new charges that he lied to investigators and granted illegal favors to the Qatari government. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
As The Post exclusively reported last week, after being asked to confirm he was withdrawing from the Garden representative race, the 70-year-old Democrat quipped, “Well, I’m not going to announce it in court.” . Another state election term.
Later, Mr. Menendez gave a half-smile as he entered an elevator in Manhattan federal court after being indicted on a separate aggravated bribery charge. He, his wife Nadine, 56, and New Jersey businessmen Fred Dives and Wael Hana appeared in court for a brief hearing.
When asked to enter a plea to the new charges, the senator, wearing a checkered blue suit and standing next to his wife and lawyer, said: “Once again, I’m not guilty, sir.”
Mr. Menendez’s case stems from what prosecutors now call a “corrupt relationship” in which Bob and Nadine traded gold bars, more than $500,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for favors that benefited local businessmen. He was charged with 16 counts of accepting bribes for convertible cars. Government and Qatar.
The senator used his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to act in effect as a quasi-spy for Egypt, passing on classified information and directing thousands of foreign aid workers into the country, and to incriminate Hana. pressure on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect their rights. According to court documents, he has an exclusive contract to export halal meat to Egypt.
Mr. Hana’s company obtained a comfortable halal exclusivity, even though the businessman had no experience with halal certification, federal authorities said.
Dybes, a real estate developer accused by the New Jersey Oversight Commission of having ties to the Genovese crime family, allegedly sent bribes including gold bars and cash to Menendez to help obstruct an ongoing federal investigation, according to the indictment. .
“Thank you. Christmas in January,” Nadine Menendez texted Dybes on Jan. 24, 2022, before the driver’s fingerprints were found on an envelope stuffed with thousands of dollars in cash. and was found inside Menendez’s home, court documents charge.
Five days later, the senator searched for “gold price kilograms” on Google, the indictment states.
Mr. Duybes later pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a separate case in New Jersey federal court, seeking no prison time.
But a New Jersey judge rejected the plea deal in October without giving reasons.
Menendez resigned from his post on the Foreign Relations Committee but refused to resign from the Senate.
He proclaimed his innocence in a dramatic speech on the Senate floor in January, saying federal authorities were “trying to convict me in the court of public opinion” before his trial, now scheduled for May, began. he claimed.
“They want victory, not justice. The unfortunate reality is that sometimes prosecutors are the first to fire before they have all the facts,” he told his colleagues on the Senate floor.
Menendez, his wife Hana, and Duives all pleaded not guilty Monday.
The fifth defendant, Jose Uribe, entered the plea earlier this month and promised to “fully cooperate” with investigators.
