Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat charged final month with taking bribes in alternate for profitable political favors, confronted a surprising new accusation on Thursday — that he conspired to behave as an agent of Egypt at the same time as he served because the chairman of the Senate International Relations Committee.
Manhattan federal prosecutors filed the newest cost in opposition to Mr. Menendez and his spouse, Nadine Menendez, in addition to a 3rd defendant, Wael Hana, accusing them of conspiring to have the senator work on Egypt’s behalf with out registering with the Justice Division.
The prosecutors have requested a decide to grab the Menendezes’ residence in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in addition to a Mercedes-Benz convertible that the federal government says was given to them as a bribe.
The alleged actions underlying the newest cost minimize to the guts of Mr. Menendez’s Senate oath to “bear true religion and allegiance” to the U.S. Structure and are sure to accentuate strain for him to resign from workplace. The cost accuses him of conspiring to violate an specific prohibition on public officers serving as brokers of international powers, and it seems to be the primary time a sitting senator has been charged with conduct coated by the World Conflict II-era International Brokers Registration Act.
Mr. Menendez, 69, Nadine Menendez, 56, Mr. Hana and two different businessmen have been accused final month in what prosecutors and F.B.I. officers described as a scheme to make use of the senator’s affect to extend U.S. support and navy gross sales to Egypt in alternate for a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars}, bars of gold bullion and the Mercedes-Benz.
The brand new indictment prices that from 2018 via 2022, Mr. Menendez, his spouse and Mr. Hana conspired to have the senator act as an agent of Egypt in a bribery plot furthered throughout conferences and dinners attended by the Menendezes, Mr. Hana and Egyptian officers in numerous combos.
In a Washington steakhouse in Could 2019, prosecutors mentioned, Ms. Menendez requested, “What else can the love of my life do for you?”
In courtroom hearings final month, all 5 defendants pleaded not responsible.
“I’ve been, all through my life, loyal to just one nation — america of America, the land my household selected to reside in democracy and freedom,” Mr. Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, mentioned in a press release launched by his workplace on Thursday.
“Piling new cost upon new cost doesn’t make the allegations true,” Mr. Menendez mentioned. “The details haven’t modified, solely a brand new cost. It’s an try and put on somebody down, and I cannot succumb to this tactic. I once more ask individuals who know me and my report to present me the possibility to current my protection and present my innocence.”
Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, David Schertler, mentioned in a press release that she denied all of the allegations, and that “we’ll battle all these prices, as acceptable, in courtroom.”
Mr. Hana’s lawyer, Lawrence S. Lustberg, scoffed on the new conspiracy cost.
“The brand new allegation that Wael Hana was a part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Senator Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian authorities is as absurd as it’s false,” Mr. Lustberg mentioned in a press release, including that Mr. Hana would “vigorously defend” himself.
After the preliminary indictment was made public final month, Mr. Menendez stepped down from his place as chairman of the International Relations Committee. However he has rejected calls from fellow Democrats to resign from the Senate.
A number of Democrats in New Jersey and Washington went additional on Thursday, calling for the Senate to vote to expel him. They included Consultant Andy Kim, a congressman searching for to defeat Mr. Menendez in a major subsequent yr, and Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
“It’s time for each considered one of my colleagues within the Senate to hitch me in expelling Senator Menendez,” Mr. Fetterman mentioned. “We can’t have an alleged international agent in america Senate. This isn’t an in depth name.”
In an indication of his defiant stance, Mr. Menendez was scheduled to host a significant fund-raising retreat for donors of his political motion committee beginning Friday at a luxurious resort in Puerto Rico. Officers in New Jersey who had contributed to the senator’s management PAC or previous campaigns mentioned as not too long ago as Wednesday that they have been additionally getting calls from individuals near Mr. Menendez asking them to contribute to the senator’s protection fund.
The indictment final month accused Mr. Menendez of secretly enhancing and ghost writing a letter in Could 2018 on behalf of an Egyptian authorities official meant to steer different senators to launch a maintain on $300 million in U.S. navy support.
He wrote the letter on the urging of Ms. Menendez, the indictment mentioned, after which despatched it to her through his personal electronic mail account. She then despatched it on to Mr. Hana, who handed it to Egyptian officers, the indictment suggests.
The brand new indictment means that Mr. Menendez was absolutely conscious of the necessities of the International Brokers Registration Act. The truth is, the indictment says, Mr. Menendez throughout that interval requested the Justice Division to open an investigation right into a former member of Congress for failing to register underneath the legislation referred to as FARA.
In a Could 2020 letter to the pinnacle of the division’s nationwide safety division, Mr. Menendez wrote, “The Act is evident that performing straight or not directly in any capability on behalf of a international principal triggers the requirement to register underneath FARA.”
Mr. Menendez posted that communication on his Senate workplace web site, the indictment says. The Could 2020 letter from Mr. Menendez to a Justice Division official asks for a evaluation of whether or not David M. Rivera, a former Republican congressman from Florida, ought to have registered as a international agent for work he had accomplished for the federal government of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.
“The very last thing we must always tolerate is a former member of Congress probably violating U.S. legal guidelines as he does the regime’s soiled work in america,” Mr. Menendez wrote.
Mr. Rivera was charged in December within the Southern District of Florida with conspiracy, failure to register as a international agent and different crimes, in response to an indictment.
This isn’t the primary time that Mr. Menendez has confronted federal corruption prices. He was indicted in New Jersey in 2015 in what prosecutors described as a bribery scheme to commerce political favors for a rich eye physician for presents value near $1 million, together with high-end journey and marketing campaign contributions.
The case went to trial in 2017 however resulted in a hung jury.
The brand new cost left historians greedy for precedents. An Ohio senator was accused of conspiring to commit treason within the early nineteenth century. However Mr. Menendez is the primary senator charged with conduct coated underneath the international brokers legislation since Congress handed it within the Nineteen Thirties to focus on Nazi propagandists. Based on information from the Senate historian’s workplace, he additionally seems to be the primary sitting senator ever charged in two separate bribery schemes.
Ross Okay. Baker, a politics professor who research Congress at Rutgers College in New Jersey, mentioned the accusations are as grave as any introduced in opposition to a senator over the previous century.
“This rises properly above issues like commerce secrets and techniques or company data,” he mentioned. “The oath is unequivocal when it comes to loyalty to the Structure of america.”
Tracey Tully contributed reporting.
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