New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez has been indicted on federal corruption charges for the second time in his senate career, authorities announced on Friday. Menendez, his wife, and three others are accused of a bribery scheme that allegedly saw Menendez accept lavish gifts in exchange for favors and influence.
Federal prosecutors held a press conference at 11 a.m. to formally announce the charges against Menendez, who was acquitted in a mistrial on federal bribery charges in 2017. Among the many allegations, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claimed that Menendez “took steps to secretly aid the government of Egypt” and provided nonpublic information to Egyptian officials, abusing his position as the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. For his role in the scheme, the senator has been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
Menendez, who has denied wrongdoing, has stepped down from his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (Senate Democrats require any member to step down from a leadership position if they are charged with a felony.) After a meeting on Friday between Democratic officials in the state, Governor Phil Murphy said that Menendez should resign. “The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state,” he said. And New Jersey Democratic congressman Andy Kim has already announced his intention to challenge Menendez for his seat next year.
Below are some of the most striking allegations from the indictment and a look at what they could mean for New Jersey’s most New Jersey politician.
Menendez and his wife accepted gold bars and wads of cash
According to the indictment, when the FBI raided the Menendez home in 2022, they found over $480,000 in cash with bills stuffed in clothing, closets, a safe, and a jacket from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus bearing his name:
Law enforcement also found over $100,000 in gold bars inside their home:
Menendez’s wife allegedly got a Mercedes-Benz off one of the deals
In 2019, two co-defendants in the case — Jose Uribe and Wael Hana — bought a Mercedes-Benz convertible for Menendez’s wife as a purported bribe. In exchange, Menendez was to interfere in a state criminal prosecution of an associate of Uribe who was charged with insurance fraud and an investigation of a family member working for him. After dinner in January 2019, prosecutors say that Uribe and Hana forwarded information about their associates to Menendez through his wife, and Menendez leaned on a New Jersey official to get a “non-incarcatory” sentence for the man accused of fraud.
“You are a miracle worker who makes dreams come true,” Nadine Menendez texted Uribe as the deal for the car was going through. “I will always remember that.” After Uribe paid the $15,000 downpayment and secured financing for the monthly payments, Menendez brought the official investigating Uribe’s family member into his Senate office, where he convinced them to drop the matter. Days later, the Menendez couple and Uribe got together for what prosecutors called a celebration dinner.
Menendez allegedly tried to lift restrictions on $300 million in military aid to Egypt in exchange for a no-show job
Prosecutors claim the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.” Specifically, Menendez helped one of his co-conspirators — Egyptian businessman Wael Hana — secure massive amounts of military funding for Egypt in exchange for the promise of a no-show job for his wife.
Following a dinner with Menendez in May 2018, Hana texted an unnamed Egyptian official claiming that a “ban on small arms and ammunition to Egypt has been lifted.” Later that month, Menendez’s wife forwarded him a request from an Egyptian official to edit a letter to senators to support aid for Egypt. Menendez then ghost-wrote the letter on behalf of the Egyptian government to unfreeze $300 million in aid, then sent it from his personal email account back to his wife’s account. His wife then forwarded the email to Hana — who sent it back to Menendez’s wife to suggest he actually wrote it. Then Menendez and his wife tried to hide the matter by deleting the emails.
‘More powerful than the president of Egypt’
As part of an alleged scheme to enrich Wael Hana, Menendez helped the businessman secure his status as the only importer of halal meat from Egypt to the United States. In 2019, when the Department of Agriculture blocked the contract giving monopoly rights to Hana, Menendez met with Hana and an Egpytian intelligence official at a steakhouse in Washington, D.C. Two days later, Menendez called a USDA official to lift their block on Hana’s business. The indictment states that Hana’s business “kept its monopoly” after the USDA meeting.
Hana allegedly then provided over $23,000 in late mortgage payments for Menendez’s wife. At one point, when Jose Uribe mentioned that Hana may not be willing to pay the full amount to get her mortgage payments back on schedule, Menendez then replied that Hana “will be more powerful than the president of Egypt.”
‘How much is one kilo of gold worth?’
Prosecutors allege that Menendez pushed to nominate lawyer Philip Sellinger for U.S. Attorney for New Jersey because he believed he could lean on Sellinger to kill a prosecution of one of his co-defendants, Fred Daibes. In a 2021 meeting, Menendez mentioned the fraud charges Daibes is facing and said that he hoped Sellinger would reconsider the case if he were appointed. In October 2021, Menendez and his wife were picked up by a driver for Daibes at JFK airport and escorted back to New Jersey. The next day, Menendez executed a curious internet search: “How much is one kilo of gold worth?”
How will the indictment affect Menendez’s political career?
Menendez is up for reelection in 2024 — he already faced a Democratic primary challenger before Kim threw his hat in the ring — and there will now be tremendous pressure on him to vacate his seat ahead of the race. While Senate rules require that he step down from his position as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he said on Friday that he will fight the charges and not step down.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of neighboring Pennsylvania both have said Menendez should call it quits, but things have been much quieter on the Senate side. So far, only Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has urged Menendez to resign, writing that he hopes his colleague “chooses an honorable exit.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed that Menendez will be stepping down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while the case is ongoing, but personally stopped short of asking for his resignation, saying that the senator has“a right to due process and a fair trial.”
Menendez does have the support of one fellow member of Congress: his son. In a statement, Congressman Rob Menendez said, “I have unwavering confidence in my father and his dedication to the New Jerseyans who he has relentlessly fought for in his long career as a public servant.”
If Menendez does resign, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, would appoint a replacement who would serve through at least January 2025. A generic Democrat would be a heavy favorite to retain the seat next November, given New Jersey’s blue leanings. (During his 2018 reelection, an already scandal-scarred Menendez was briefly thought to be vulnerable; he ended up beating his Republican challenger by more than 11 points.)
This story will be updated with further developments.
