Sen. Bob Menendez blackmailed by foreign intelligence? - The Horn News

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Sen. Bob Menendez blackmailed by foreign intelligence?

By:

by Frank Holmes, reporter 

A U.S. senator took bribes from foreign countries through his family members before he used his influence to steer foreign policy in that country’s favor, investigators said.

It’s not Joe Biden — at least, not exclusively. It’s New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez, who recent stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He and his wife, Nadine Menendez, face three charges for taking bribes.

But the real bombshell in further in the indictment: They may have been compromised by foreign intelligence operations.

The Dem power couple entered a “not guilty” plea to all charges last Wednesday. Senator Menendez convinced the judge to let him skip the hearing, so the senator’s wife had to show up without him.

At the heart of the charges is a man named Wael “Will” Hana. Even far-Left media highlighted the fact that Hana allegedly paid off Menendez to pressure the Egyptian government to give his company a monopoly over importing meat to Egypt that meets the Islamic dietary code, known as “halal.” After Hana’s IS EG Halal Certified Inc. got this perk in 2019, the price of imported meat increased from $200 to $5,000 for the same amount of food.

The meat certification smells fishy, because IS EG had never had anything to do with certifying halal meat—and Hana is a Christian, not a Muslim.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened Hana’s monopoly two years later, Hana sent several items including an air purifier and two exercise machines to Menendez’s home. The senator put on the pressure, and Hana kept his monopoly.

Investigative journalists in Egypt also found IS EG’s sister company, Medi Trade, had close ties to Egyptian intelligence. 

Menendez also reportedly took bribes to successfully lobby President Joe Biden to appoint Philip Sellinger  as U.S. Attorney of New Jersey, because he would go easy on another Arab, Fred Daibes.

If there’s one thing Joe Biden understands, it’s the importance of a president picking the right prosecutor.

But there are hints at least some of these alleged bribes came from Egyptian intelligence.

Prosecutors say Menendez had dinner on a multiple occasions with Egyptian intelligence officials, where he “provided sensitive, non-public U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and otherwise took steps to secretly aid the Government of Egypt.” He also ghost wrote a letter from Egyptians lobbying his fellow senators to lift a hold on $300 million in aid for the country.

Mrs. Menendez is named because, according to the charges, she began introducing Menendez to Egyptian interests when she started dating the senator in 2018. And she acted as a go-between from the senator to officials in the Arab world, passing the letter on from her boyfriend to Egypt. They tied the knot in 2019.

It’s not clear if Nadine Arslanian—the Lebanon-born daughter of Armenian parents— really loves Menendez, or if she targeted him as part of a honeypot operation.

“She wasn’t working when she began dating Menendez but started an international consulting company, Strategic International Business Consultants, shortly after, in June 2019,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The two Arab defendants put Nadine Menendez on the Hunter Biden plan. They gave Mrs. Menendez $30,000 in exchange “for a low-or-no-show job,” federal prosecutors say.

Then the real bribes started rolling in.

The Menendez family received a Mercedes Benz sedan, 13 gold bars, and $566,000 in cash from the pair, prosecutors say.

Ironically, Menendez accused Trump of being a “Russian agent”—while he appears to have been working with the Egyptian government.

Even though Menendez faces 45 years in prison, the senator has promised to keep on serving, no matter what he’s charged with.

Menendez hired Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, to represent him… against President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

“Not only will I be exonerated, I will still be New Jersey’s senior senator,” Menendez told a press conference last Monday.

Maybe the senator thinks he can skate, because he’s gotten by with so many schemes in the past.

Menendez has been repeatedly accused of pedophilia since 2012.  He was indicted on corruption charges in 2015 but released by a hung jury. And the Senate Ethics Committee “severely admonished” him in 2018, ordering him to pay back “gifts” he received from political donors.

But things look much different this time.

First of all, his constituents seem to have had it: 84 percent of New Jersey voters say, if Menendez is guilty, he should resign, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll.

Second, Menendez is not getting any support from his colleagues. 31 of his fellow Senate Democrats—including the junior Democratic senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker—say Menendez should quit, or be fired.

Third, the liberal media, which have swept countless Democratic scandals out of the public eye, have given the Menendez bribery story its fair share of coverage, too.

MSNBC threw Menendez under the bus, with Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell pouring on negative coverage Monday night. O’Donnell interviewed Rep. Andy Kim, who plans to run against Menendez in the primary for his seat.

And there’s even more bad news for Menendez: The three-count indictment came down Friday in the Southern District of New York (SDNY)—not the U.S. District of New Jersey, where Menendez lives.

SDNY is the same court where partisan Democrats have filed charges against President Donald Trump—not once, but time and time again. It’s where Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who has targeted Trump but refuses to prosecute violent criminals, came from.

SDNY seems to be the Left’s go-to court when it wants to send a politician to the slammer.

Egypt is also not getting the benefits that Menendez allegedly promised. His replacement as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md., announced on Saturday he was holding up $235 million in U.S. foreign aid to Egypt.

Joe Biden kept another $85 million in aid away from Egypt last month.

In politics, things are never what they seem, especially in Democratic politics. Democrats like Andrew Cuomo are allowed to hold on to power…until the Democratic Party decides it has a replacement ready.

In 2020, the party threw its weight behind Joe Biden; now, it looks like he’s being brought down.

Is it possible Menendez and his wife profited off a back-room deal with Egyptian intelligence or intel assets, but their bribery clashed with Biden’s designs for Cairo?

Is it possible the Menendez family is being set up by the Deep State to open up his Senate seat for somebody more to the DNC’s liking… possibly a black lesbian, like the new “California” senator, Laphonza Butler?

Or are they just guilty as sin and finally getting what they deserve?

 

 

Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.” 

About the Author

Stephen is a U.S. Army veteran with over a decade of combined experience in political commentary, economics, and news.