Sen. Bob Menendez faces new prices accusing him of running for foreign authorities The superseding indictment alleges Menendez “provided touchy U.S. Government facts and took different steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.”
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., changed into hit with new fees Thursday accusing him of accepting bribes from an overseas government and conspiring to act as a foreign agent, according to a superseding indictment.
The new indictment, filed through a federal grand jury in Manhattan, alleged that he “provided touchy U.S. Government information and took different steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.”
Menendez ought to face up to two years in jail for failing as a public reputable to check in as an agent of foreign energy, in step with a law cited inside the superseding indictment.
In a declaration Thursday, Menendez brushed off the brand-new allegations. The authorities’ ultra-modern price flies in the face of my lengthy report of status up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that United States, together with President [Abdel-Fattah] El-Sisi on these problems,” he stated.
“Piling new rate upon new price does no longer make the allegations real. The facts haven’t modified, handiest a new fee,” he added. “I again ask individuals who recognize me and my document to offer me the risk to offer my defense and display my innocence.”
Menendez and his spouse, Nadine, final month pleaded no longer responsibility to corruption charges alleging that they used his influence to pocket loads of hundreds of bucks in bribes.
Three different defendants — New Jersey businessmen Jose Uribe, Fred Daibes, and Wael Hana — also pleaded not guilty to the corruption costs last month.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who was the primary Senate Democrat to name for Menendez to surrender after the preliminary crook costs, stated Thursday that senators need to maintain a vote to expel him.
“We can not have an alleged overseas agent within the United States Senate,” Fetterman said in a statement. “It is time for each considered one of my colleagues inside the Senate to enroll in me in expelling Senator Menendez.”
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Expulsion could require two-thirds of the whole Senate to vote in desire of doing away with Menendez.
Fetterman’s name was sponsored through Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who introduced after the remaining month’s prices that he became strolling for Menendez’s seat. “Given the severity of these fees, the US Senate ought to vote on expulsion,”
In the indictment Thursday, federal prosecutors alleged that Menendez’s wife and Hana “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and navy officers to Menendez for the purpose of organizing and solidifying a corrupt agreement.”
The new price alleges that from 2018 to 2022, Hana, Menendez, and his spouse “conspired, confederated and agreed collectively and with each other to have a public authentic” — Menendez — “act as an agent of a foreign important, to wit, the Government of Egypt and Egyptian officers.
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It cites as overt acts a dinner Menendez, his now-spouse, and Hana had collectively at a restaurant in 2018, and a 2d dinner Menendez had with Hana and an unidentified Egyptian reputable in 2019.
Hana’s legal professional, Larry Lustberg, mocked the fee in an assertion Thursday.
“The new allegation that Wael Hana turned into a part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Senator Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is as absurd as it’s miles fake. As with the alternative expenses on this indictment, Mr. Hana will vigorously shield against this baseless allegation,” Lustberg said.
While extra information about Menendez’s alleged behavior on behalf of the authorities of Egypt is protected in Thursday’s filing, prosecutors did no longer allege that the senator or his spouse customary any additional coins or presents that weren’t already blanketed inside the charges issued ultimate month.
The superseding indictment noted that Menendez had sent two letters to the Justice Department in May 2022, which included one letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking that they request an unnamed former member of Congress to be investigated as an overseas agent.
Prosecutors stated the letters, which were published on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee website and/or Menendez’s website, blanketed the precise statutes that limit Americans from operating on behalf of an overseas government without registering with the Justice Department.
The indictment alleged that Menendez’s wife the one who counseled Hana that she become dating the senator and that allegedly occurred whilst Hana’s outreach, in part to develop Egypt’s interests, started out.
The new fees against Menendez come weeks after he and his wife were accused of accepting “hundreds of heaps of greenbacks” in return for the use of his impact to complement the 3 New Jersey businessmen and gain the Egyptian government.
During his time as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez helped oversee billions of bucks in U.S. Useful resources to Egypt. He stepped down as chair of the panel rapidly after he turned into indicted closing month.
The costs within the indictment from last month blanketed conspiracy to dedicate bribery, conspiracy to devote sincere offerings fraud, and conspiracy to devote extortion beneath color of reputable proper.
In that indictment, prosecutors alleged that the couple received bribes, together in the form of “coins, gold bars, bills towards a domestic loan, repayment for an extremely low-or-no-show process, a luxury vehicle and different items of the fee.”
In addition to the federal corruption case, the FBI is investigating whether or not Egypt’s intelligence offerings could have been concerned within the alleged bribery scheme described inside the September indictment of Menendez and his wife, resources familiar with the matter said closing month.
Menendez rejected his resignation from dozens of his Democratic colleagues after he was indicted on bribery costs remaining month.
Amid the ones calls, Menendez had met together with his fellow Senate Democrats in a closed-door meeting. After the meeting, he instructed newshounds: “I will preserve to forged votes on behalf of the people of New Jersey as I have for 18 years.
And I am positive after they want those votes, they’ll be looking for it, for me to trap the one’s votes.”
Menendez has time and again denied wrongdoing inside the case and predicted that he could in the end be exonerated. Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement after the expenses closing month that she “denies any wrongdoing and will protect vigorously in opposition to these allegations in the courtroom.”
In his first public comments at the expenses, Menendez insisted all the cash found in his Englewood Cliffs domestic changed into his.
“For 30 years, I actually have withdrawn lots of dollars in coins from my personal savings account,
which I actually have kept for emergencies and because of the records of my own family facing confiscation in Cuba,” he stated. “These were money drawn from my private financial savings account primarily based on the profits I have lawfully derived over those 30 years.”
The federal indictment became the second one Menendez has faced on the grounds that he entered the workplace as a senator in 2006. He was charged in 2015 with illegally accepting favors from a Florida eye physician. The case ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to attain a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors determined in opposition to retrying him.
Menendez is the primary sitting U.S. Senator to face indictments on unrelated criminal allegations, in keeping with statistics compiled by way of the Senate Historical Office.