Sen. Bob Menendez’s defense against new federal corruption charges against him, his wife and business associates Friday revealed that he’s adopting the same defiant stance he took when he faced federal accusations nearly a decade ago.
A three-term senator who has held office at every level across New Jersey’s rough-and-tumble political landscape, Menendez vowed to fight the latest set of charges and questioned the veracity of the indictment.
In almost the same language he used in 2017 after a mistrial on federal corruption charges, he cast the indictment Friday in political terms and vowed to continue his work in the Senate.
Gold bars worth more than $100,000. A new Mercedes-Benz convertible in the garage. Wads of cash stuffed in the pockets of a jacket with “Bob Menendez” embroidered on the breast.
The signature at the bottom of the federal indictment released Friday charging Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., his wife Nadine, and three alleged accomplices with bribery, belongs to Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
But the details of what federal agents said they found in June 2022 when they raided the Menendez home in New Jersey, and in their subsequent investigation of the couples' email and phone accounts, could have been stripped from an episode of “The Sopranos."
Menendez and his wife have denied allegations of wrongdoing.
This is the second time New Jersey's senior senator has been charged with corruption. A 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts and a judge acquitted him on some charges.
The previous charges against Menendez centered on his relationship with Florida eye doctor Solomon Melgen, a close ally of the senator. Menendez allegedly accepted gifts from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his senate office to benefit the doctor's financial and personal interests.
Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Menendez has stepped down as the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rules for the Senate Democratic caucus say that any member who is charged with a felony must step aside from a leadership position. However, according to a person close to Menendez, the senator will not resign. Menendez is facing reelection next year.
Sen. Bob Menendez, allegedly accepted gold bar bribes, prosecutors allege, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment.
The new set of charges unveiled Friday allege Menendez took repeated actions to benefit Egypt despite US. government concerns over the country’s human rights record, including ghost-writing a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt as well as transmitting non-public information to Egyptian officials about military issues, the indictment says.
He’s also accused of trying to derail the criminal case against one of the businessmen advocating to install Philip R. Sellinger to be the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Menendez believed he could influence Sellinger, prosecutors said, and also tried to use his position of power to meddle in a separate investigation by the New Jersey attorney general’s office.
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