Six years ago, the ‘esteemed’ senator from New Jersey was investigated and charged with corruption, which ended in a hung jury. Now the 69-year-old Democrat who leads the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee faces another round of federal corruption charges .
The indictment, unsealed in Manhattan federal court, also names the senator’s wife of three years, Nadine Menendez, 56, and a prominent New Jersey real estate developer, Fred Daibes, accusing them of participating in the corrupt scheme. Wael Hana, a longtime friend of Ms. Menendez’s who founded a halal meat certification business in New Jersey, was also charged, as was a fifth person, Jose Uribe, a New Jersey businessman.
It has been known for some time that Mr. Menendez was under federal scrutiny, and he has said he was willing to assist investigators and was confident the matter would be “successfully closed.”
According to NBC:
Menendez received cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value, the filing said.
The indictment also alleged that Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and pressured an official at the Agriculture Department for the purpose of protecting Egyptian American businessman Wael Hanna and the government of Egypt. Menendez interfered in an investigation undertaken by the New Jersey attorney general into New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe, it said.
Menendez “promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty to recommend that the President nominate an individual for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to the federal prosecution of Fred Daibes,” a New Jersey developer, the indictment said.
Presser Below:
