Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on Tuesday saw another addition to his felony indictments.
Now, Menendez stands accused not only of taking bribes to benefit Egypt’s administration… but also of helping a New Jersey developer secure a multimillion-dollar investment from a company tied to Qatar’s royal family in exchange for fancy watches.
When MSNBC announced this news, the network sent its very best: news anchor Alicia Menendez, the senator’s daughter.
Alicia Menendez hosts American Voices on MSNBC. Preempting a conflict of interest, Menendez has promised to avoid covering her father’s case.
“I will not be reporting on the legal case,” Menendez reportedly told her viewers in September. “That said, my colleagues across MSNBC and NBC News, they have aggressively covered this story, and they’ll continue to do so, as they should.”
During the news of the indictment, Alicia Menendez was guest-hosting Deadline: White House on behalf of usual host Nicole Wallace.
Menendez kept her word Tuesday… but MSNBC took more than an hour to find a substitute, according to viewers.
MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber eventually discussed the indictment after Alicia Menendez attempted to cut to commercial.
Take a look at this embarrassing moment —
Towards the end of today's broadcast of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, anchor Alicia Menendez — filling in for Nicolle Wallace — hands off to Ari Melber to report Sen. Bob Menendez's latest corruption charges.
The New Jersey senator is the MSNBC host's father. pic.twitter.com/4S08CfqpfB
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 2, 2024
The revised indictment, filed in New York, is full of salacious details.
It said the senator and his wife accepted bribes of gold bars and cash from New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes as a reward for several corrupt acts that included his help in securing a major investment from the Qatari fund.
Prosecutors said Sen. Menendez introduced Daibes to a member of Qatar’s royal family who was also a principal in the investment firm, met personally with Qatari officials and made public statements supportive of Qatar while the real estate deal was being negotiated.
The indictment said the Qatari investor eventually invested tens of millions of dollars in Daibes’ development project, in a deal finalized in 2023.
Adam Fee, a lawyer for the senator, said in a statement that prosecutors lacked proof of any wrongdoing.
“What they have instead is a string of baseless assumptions and bizarre conjectures based on routine, lawful contacts between a Senator and his constituents or foreign officials. They are turning this into a persecution, not a prosecution,” he said.
“At all times, Senator Menendez acted entirely appropriately with respect to Qatar, Egypt, and the many other countries he routinely interacts with. Those interactions were always based on his professional judgment as to the best interests of the United States because he is, and always has been, a patriot.”
Tim Donohue, a lawyer for Daibes, told the Associated Press that he had no immediate comment.
The indictment did not identify the member of the Qatari royal family involved. Messages left with Qatar’s consulate in New York and with its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, were not immediately returned.
No new charges were added to the latest version of an indictment that already charged Sen. Menendez in a bribery conspiracy that allegedly enriched him and his wife with a luxury car besides the cash and gold. The allegations involving Qatar occurred from 2021 through 2023, and were added to the prior indictments.
Other parts of the indictment accuse Menendez, 70, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, of taking bribes from two other New Jersey businessmen besides Daibes. All have pleaded not guilty.
Among other things, Sen. Menendez is accused of ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt.
After his September arrest, the senator gave up his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has resisted calls for him to resign from his Senate seat.
The indictment contains new details about the senator’s relationship with Daibes, a powerful New Jersey real estate developer.
Daibes has been credited with building out a string of luxury waterfront buildings, known as the “gold coast,” in the New Jersey town of Edgewater.
Along the way, he has maintained cozy relationships with local officials, which enabled him to chase off rival developers and renege on promises to build affordable housing, according to a report from the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation.
Daibes already faced federal fraud charges when he was arrested in September on charges that he paid bribes to Sen. Menendez, a longtime friend. He was also accused of attempting to convince a federal prosecutor to go easy on Daibes in his bank fraud case.
The indictment said that while the Qatari investment company was considering its investment in the Daibes real estate development, Sen. Menendez made multiple public statements supporting the government of Qatar and then provided them to Daibes so he could share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official.
In one August 2021 instance, the indictment said, Sen. Menendez used an encrypted messaging application to send Daibes the text of a press release in which he praised the government of Qatar, before texting Daibes: “You might want to send to them. I am just about to release.”
Two months later, Menendez and his wife returned from a trip to Qatar and Egypt and were picked up at the airport by Daibes’ driver, the indictment said. The next day, it added, the senator performed an internet search for “how much is one kilo of gold worth.”
The Qatari Investment Co. signed a letter of intent to enter a joint venture with a company controlled by Daibes in May 2022, the indictment said. Thereafter, it added, Daibes gave Menendez at least one gold bar.
A search of the senator’s residence produced two 1-kilogram gold bars and nine 1-ounce gold bars with serial numbers showing they’d previously been possessed by Daibes, along with about 10 envelopes of cash with tens of thousands of dollars bearing the fingerprints or DNA of Daibes, the indictment said.
The indictment said a Qatari investment official also sent tickets to a Formula One auto racing event to one of Nadine Menendez’s close relatives.
The indictment said Menendez did not report any of the cash or gold received by himself or his spouse as required for a U.S. senator on annual financial disclosure forms.
Judge Sidney H. Stein, who is presiding over the case, refused last week to extend a May 5 trial date after defense lawyers requested more time to prepare.
In a letter to the judge late Tuesday, prosecutors said they would not oppose a delayed arraignment of the defendants or an arraignment by video.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.