Washington — For the second time in his career, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is heading to trial on corruption charges. This time, he is fighting accusations that he traded his political influence for cash, gold bullion and a new Mercedes-Benz convertible.
The allegations date back to 2018, when the Democratic senator began dating the woman who is now his wife, Nadine Menendez, who was also charged in the corruption probe. Prosecutors say Menendez offered political favors to three New Jersey businessmen and secretly helped the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Menendez, who resigned his powerful chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted, has pleaded not guilty and has not ruled out testifying.
Recent court filings revealed Menendez's potential defense strategies, including incriminating his wife and stating that hoarding cash was a “coping mechanism” after “two significant traumatic events” in his life.
Menendez will stand trial with two New Jersey businessmen, who have also pleaded not guilty.
Here's what you need to know.
What are Menéndez and his wife accused of?
Menéndez and his wife were initially loaded on three criminal charges in September 2023: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official law.
The initial indictment detailed a years-long corruption scheme in which Menendez allegedly used his influence as then-chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee to secretly benefit Egypt; lobbied a US Department of Agriculture official to protect a business monopoly Egypt granted to New Jersey businessman Wael Hana; interfering with a criminal investigation and prosecution by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office of a second New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe, and his associates; and attempted to influence a federal prosecution of a third New Jersey businessman, Fred Daibes.
A substitution of the accusation in October 2023 he added a fourth charge alleging the couple conspired to act as a foreign agent for Egypt. Prosecutors say Menendez and his wife provided Egyptian officials, through Hana, with “highly sensitive” and non-public information about the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and U.S. military aid to Egypt. The senator also allegedly wrote a ghost letter on behalf of Egypt that sought to convince his Senate colleagues to release a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt.
“Anything you need, you have my number and we'll make it happen,” Nadine Menéndez allegedly texted an Egyptian intelligence official in March 2020, days before setting up one of several meetings between her husband and the official.
In January, a second superseding indictment included allegations made by Menendez favorable comments about the government of Qatar as Daibes was seeking a multi-million dollar investment from a government-linked company.
Menendez was indicted on a dozen new criminal charges in March a third substitute accusation, which brings the total number of charges to 16. Additional charges include obstruction of justice, public official acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud. Nadine Menendez, whose trial was separated from her husband's because of a “serious medical condition,” faces 15 charges. He has also pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that in exchange for the senator's use of his power and influence to enrich businessmen, they provided the Menendezs with lavish gifts, including cash, gold bullion, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, furniture and home mortgage payments like Nadine Menendez was. he faces foreclosure on his home.
When investigators executed a search warrant at the couple's home in June 2022, they found more than $480,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes and coats and 13 gold bars worth more than $100,000. They discovered nearly $80,000 in a safe deposit box at a nearby bank.
After the initial indictment, Menendez said he withdrew thousands of dollars each month from his personal emergency savings account for 30 years. The “old-fashioned” habit, he said, had roots in his family's experience in Cuba.
Who are the other defendants?
Hana met Nadine Menendez years before she started dating the senator. Originally from Egypt, Hana lived in New Jersey and operated IS EG Halal, a start-up that soon became the only company certifying halal products imported into Egypt, even though Hana had no previous experience in the industry halal
Hana and Nadine Menendez were often the go-betweens between the senator and Egyptian officials, arranging dinners at expensive restaurants and meetings in his Senate office, according to court documents. Prosecutors say Hana put Nadine Menendez on her company's payroll “in little or no-show work” after the senator promised to use her power to facilitate foreign military sales to Egypt.
When an accident left Nadine Menendez without a car in December 2018, she turned to Hana, who connected her with Uribe, her business partner who had been involved in an insurance fraud case. The following month, the couple and the two businessmen agreed that Menendez would intervene in the insurance fraud case, the indictments say. In return, the charges allege, Uribe helped buy Nadine Menéndez a black Mercedes-Benz convertible, meeting her in a restaurant parking lot to hand over $15,000 in cash that he used for the down payment and then arrange the car payments.
Around the same time, Egypt granted Hana's company a monopoly in a deal that provided a “revenue stream” for Hana to pay the Menendezs, the indictments say. But the monopoly also raised costs for other U.S. meat suppliers, and after U.S. officials raised objections in Egypt, Hana enlisted the senator's help in pressuring the Agriculture Department to withdraw.
In the summer of 2019, prosecutors say Nadine Menendez, who was tens of thousands of dollars behind on her mortgage and facing foreclosure, again turned to Hana and Uribe for help. Hana's company, they say, paid $23,000 to bring mortgage payments up to date while Menendez tried to pressure New Jersey officials to end the fraud investigation tied to Uribe.
It wasn't the first case in which Menendez interfered, according to the indictments. In late 2020, the senator met with a person who would later be nominated to be the United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, criticizing the office's prosecution of Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer and associate of Hannah Daibes was accused in 2018 of obtaining loans under false pretenses. But when the person suggested that he might have to withdraw from the prosecution, Menendez informed him that he would recommend someone else to the White House for the U.S. attorney nomination, prosecutors alleged.
During 2021 and 2022, after Menendez publicly praised the Qatari government, which prosecutors suggested helped Daibes secure a settlement with a Qatari investor, and as the senator sought to continue interfering with the federal prosecution de Daibes, the real estate developer allegedly gave Menendez gold bars, cash and a recliner.
“Gold price of a kilo,” Menéndez allegedly searched online, hours after dining with his wife and Daibes in May 2022.
Less than a month later, federal agents executed search warrants on the Menendez home and safe deposit box.
According to prosecutors, Uribe stopped making payments on Nadine Menendez's Mercedes after that and told her he would say the payments were a loan if investigators asked. Menendez and his wife tried to cover the mortgage and car payments by writing checks to Hana and Uribe that were characterized as loan payments, prosecutors said. That led to lawyers for Menendez and his wife making “false and misleading statements” to investigators in 2023, according to the indictment.
Uribe pleaded guilty to seven charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion, and agreed to cooperate with investigators earlier this year.
