Last month, Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife were accused of accepting bribes of cash, gold bars, and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator’s help and influence over foreign affairs.
Now, Menendez, D-N.J., faces a new charge… and this one’s even more serious.
Menendez was indicted Thursday on a new charge of conspiring to act as an agent of the Egyptian government. Menendez chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until last month.
The new indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the U.S. government if they act as “an agent of a foreign principal.” As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government.
The indictment said the conspiracy occurred from January 2018 to June 2022, when Menendez was alleged to have “promised to take and took a series of acts on behalf of Egypt, including on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials.” It said he conspired to do so with his wife, Nadine, and a business associate and fellow defendant, Wael Hana.
Starting in February 2018, Menendez was the highest-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
According to the indictment, Hana and Nadine Menendez also communicated requests and directives from Egyptian officials to Menendez.
The indictment further alleged that in May 2019, Menendez, his wife and Hana met with an Egyptian intelligence official in Menendez’s Senate office in Washington. During the meeting, they discussed an American citizen who was seriously injured in a 2015 airstrike by the Egyptian military using a U.S.-made Apache helicopter, the indictment said.
Some members of Congress objected to awarding certain military aid to Egypt over that episode and the perception by certain lawmakers that the Egyptian government was unwilling to fairly compensate the injured American, according to the indictment.
Shortly after the meeting in Washington, the Egyptian official texted Hana that if Menendez helped resolve the matter, “he will sit very comfortably.”
According to the indictment, Hana replied, “Orders, consider it done.”
In an email obtained by the Associated Press, Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said the “new allegation that Wael Hana was part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Senator Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is as absurd as it is false.”
“As with the other charges in this indictment, Mr. Hana will vigorously defend against this new and baseless allegation,” he wrote.
Menendez has remained quiet on this new indictment. He and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges lodged against them last month. Hana pleaded not guilty last month to charges including conspiracy to commit bribery.
After Hana’s company was granted a lucrative monopoly by the Egyptian government to certify that all meat imported into that country met religious requirements, prosecutors said, Menendez urged U.S. agriculture officials to stop questioning the deal.
Menendez was accused of trying to interfere in two criminal cases, pushing prosecutors to either drop an investigation or give leniency to friends of his associates. In return, prosecutors said, one businessman, Jose Uribe, bought Nadine Menendez a $60,000 luxury car. Uribe has pleaded not guilty.
In both the old and new indictments, prosecutor said Menendez, after meeting with an Egyptian official, lobbied then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to increase American engagement in stalled negotiations involving Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to build a dam over the Nile River, a key foreign policy issue for Egypt.
The indictments said that while Menendez was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he took several steps to secretly aid Egyptian officials. That included ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt.
He was also accused of passing along information about employees at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt and transmitting nonpublic information to Egyptian officials about military aid.
Menendez, 69, has insisted that he did nothing unusual to assist Egypt and that prosecutors had misunderstood the work of a senator involved in foreign affairs. He maintains that all senators, because of their jobs, need to take phone calls and schedule meetings with foreign actors.
Authorities who searched Menendez’s home last year said they found more than $100,000 worth of gold bars and over $480,000 in cash — much of it hidden in closets, clothing and a safe.
The new charge against Menendez comes as more than 30 Senate Democrats — including his home state colleague, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker — have called on him to resign. Menendez has remained defiant, telling his colleagues in a closed-door luncheon two weeks ago that he will not leave the Senate.
Menendez has not said whether he will run for reelection next year. At least one Democrat, New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim, has already jumped into the primary.
Even Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, has called on Menendez to resign, signaling that he may not receive campaign assistance traditionally available to incumbents.
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has yet to call for Menendez to resign, even after pressing former Sen. Al Franken to resign almost immediately after an ethics complaint in 2018.
“Bob Menendez has been a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey. He has a right to due process and a fair trial,” Schumer said in a statement last month.
“Senator Menendez has rightly decided to step down temporarily from his position as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee until the matter has been resolved.”
Menendez has refused to resign and has expressly committed to remaining in office.
The senator reportedly told the press last month, “I have stated throughout this whole process, I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
Menendez also refused to step down during his 2010s trial on federal corruption charges. He stepped down as ranking member Foreign Relations Committee, saw his charges dropped, and then returned to post in 2018.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act was enacted in 1938 to unmask Nazi propaganda in the United States, and it requires people to disclose to the Justice Department whenever they advocate, lobby or perform public relations work in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government or political entity.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.