Sen. Bob Menendez (D.N.J.) is facing his second federal corruption trial in a decade, this time in Egypt, as jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Manhattan. The case is related to charges of acting in favor of the government. And Qatar.
The 70-year-old New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes from three wealthy businessmen in their home state, real estate developers Fred Dybes, Wael Hana, and Jose Uribe, in return for various payments. He has been charged with taking advantage of the situation. , including intervening in criminal investigations and taking actions that benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Mr. Menendez, 70, will stand trial along with two other businessmen, Mr. Dybes and Wael Hana. All three have maintained their innocence. Mr. Uribe pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the other defendants. The trial of the senator’s wife, who is also indicted, has been postponed until at least July for health reasons.
The three-term senator has announced that he will not seek re-election as a Democratic candidate this fall, but has not ruled out running as an independent. That could complicate matters for Democrats, who hold a narrow lead in the Senate and have little leeway to achieve a three-way election in New Jersey, a Democratic stronghold.
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Sen. Bob Menendez (DN.J.) departs the Senate chamber at the Capitol on September 28, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
After the charges were announced in September, Menendez was ousted from his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The senator’s political career first suffered a major crisis in 2015 when a wealthy Florida eye doctor was indicted on charges of buying Menendez’s influence through lavish vacations and campaign contributions. Ta. At the time, Menendez categorically denied the charges and vowed not to resign from the Senate. The trial ended in 2017 with a deadlocked jury, and federal prosecutors in New Jersey threw out the case.
Not only did Menendez remain in Congress, he was re-elected and retained his chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He married Nadine Menendez in 2020 after two years of dating.
In a new case, federal prosecutors say FBI agents who searched the senator’s New Jersey home allegedly discovered a stash of gold bars worth more than $100,000 and more than $486,000 in cash. Some of it was stuffed into the senator’s clothing pocket, he stressed. Closet due to attack two years ago.
Menendez remained in the Senate amid the charges, defying calls to resign by the end of his six-year term on January 3. But unlike in 2015, his party has largely abandoned him. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and others have called for his resignation. Democratic Rep. Andy Kim began campaigning for Menendez’s seat the day after the indictment.
Senator Bob Menendez (left) and his wife Nadine Menendez arrive at a federal courthouse in New York on September 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Gina Moon, File)
Sen. Bob Menendez may blame wife Nadine in federal corruption trial: court documents
Although his fellow Democrats in Washington, D.C., have already abandoned him and appear to have repeatedly encouraged him to resign, Menendez remains defiant.
After the indictment against him was renewed in early March to include a charge of attempting to obstruct an investigation, he said, “I am innocent and I intend to prove it no matter how many charges keep coming my way.” said.
Menendez is charged with bribery, extortion, fraud and obstruction of justice, as well as being a foreign agent of Egypt.
Mr. Menendez strongly denied doing anything unusual in his dealings with foreign officials. Lawyers for the senator said in court documents that Menendez had no knowledge of what happened because his wife, who appeared to often act as a conduit between the men he paid bribes to, kept him quiet. He said he plans to explain.
Sen. Bob Menendez (DN.J.) speaks during a Senate Finance Hearing on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
The indictment alleges that Duybes gave the Menendez gold bullion and cash to obtain the senator’s cooperation in a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, and that he persuaded Menendez to take action in favor of the Qatari government. It is said that it was set. The indictment also alleges that Menendez entered into a valuable agreement with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements, an act that benefited Egyptian authorities in exchange for bribes from Hana. It is said that he has done so.
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Mr. Uribe pleaded guilty several weeks ago, admitting that he bought Mr. Menendez’s wife a Mercedes-Benz in order to gain the senator’s cooperation in influencing a criminal investigation involving a business associate.
Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected Mr. Menendez’s attempt to argue that legislative immunity immunized him from charges. The judge said the defense called in a psychiatrist to explain how before Menendez died, he habitually sent cash home to his family out of “fear of scarcity” over his family’s story of how their life savings were confiscated during Cuba’s communist revolution. The jury has not yet ruled on whether it can be shown that it was kept. This was due to financial problems caused by his father’s gambling problem, who was an unsuccessful carpenter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
