Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez indicted on federal bribery charges
What does the indictment allege?
The 39-page indictment claims that beginning in 2018, Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using the senator’s power and influence as a U.S. senator to enrich and protect the three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — and benefit Egypt’s government.
The bribes allegedly included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a “low-or-no-show-job,” a luxury vehicle and “other things of value,” according to the charging document. Prosecutors included photos of cash and two of the gold bars they say were seized during a search of the Menendez home and a safe deposit box in June 2022:
Prosecutors allege that in the course of the “corrupt relationship,” Menendez promised to undertake official acts in exchange for the bribes that benefited him and his wife. The senator is accused of providing sensitive, nonpublic government information about the number of people serving at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to Nadine Menendez, who was then his girlfriend, which she allegedly forwarded to Hana. Hana then shared the information with an unnamed Egyptian government official, according to the indictment.
Justice Department lawyers said Menendez also “improperly advised and pressured” a high-level Department of Agriculture official and urged the department to stop interfering with a business monopoly granted to Hana by the Egyptian government.
The New Jersey senator was indicted in 2015 on roughly a dozen charges, including bribery and conspiracy, following accusations he accepted gifts from a wealthy Democratic donor in exchange for political favors. That case ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than a week.
Sources confirmed to CBS News in October 2022 that Menendez was under criminal investigation in New York.
First elected to Congress in 1992 to represent New Jersey’s 13th Congressional District, Menendez was appointed to the Senate in 2006 and elected to a full term later that year. In the course of his tenure in the Senate, Menedez rose to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post he resumed when Democrats took control of the upper after the 2020 election.
This is a developing story and will be updated.