Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has been indicted — again.
On Friday, prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging Menendez, his wife Nadine, and three businessmen with conspiracy to commit bribery and other corruption crimes.
The eye-popping indictment alleges that the Menendezes accepted “cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle,” and other bribes in exchange for Menendez using his senatorial influence to benefit the businessmen. Prosecutors say they found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and two gold bars during a search of the couple’s home, including some inside Menendez’s jackets.
US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York
Menendez is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, and there’s a foreign relations angle to the indictment. One of the businessmen, Wael Hana, had won a lucrative contract from the government of Egypt and frequently arranged meetings between Egyptian officials and the Menendezes. Prosecutors allege Menendez “provided sensitive US government information and took other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt,” in exchange for bribes paid by Hana.
They also allege that Menendez called state prosecutors to try and “disrupt” an investigation into another businessman in exchange for a car. And they claim Menendez tried to get President Biden to appoint a US Attorney for New Jersey who would scuttle yet another investigation for a donor — in exchange for “cash, furniture, and gold bars.”
That’s … a lot. Now, one catch is that Menendez has beaten an indictment before — prosecutors accused him of bribery and corruption back in 2015, but the jury deadlocked at trial.
This time around, though, the evidence appears more extensive and damning….
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