Washington — Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and his wife have been indicted by a federal grand jury, according to court filings unsealed Friday, with prosecutors alleging the couple accepted lavish bribes in exchange for official acts.
The bribery offenses against Menendez stem from a yearslong public-corruption investigation by the Justice Department. The indictment unsealed Friday charges Mendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, with three counts in connection to their relationship with three New Jersey businessmen.
Menendez, 69, and his wife are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The three New Jersey associates, identified as Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, are also named as co-defendants and face two counts.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are set to announce the charges during a press conference at 11 a.m. ET on Friday, which will be streamed in the player above.
What does the indictment allege?
The 39-page indictment claims that beginning in 2018, Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using the senator’s power and influence as a U.S. senator to enrich and protect the three businessmen and benefit Egypt’s government.
The bribes allegedly included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a “low-or-no-show-job,” a luxury vehicle and “other things of value,” according to the charging document.
Federal agents found more than $480,000 in cash during a search of the couple’s home in June 2022, “much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,” as well as over $70,000 in a safe deposit box belonging to Nadine Menendez. They also found gold bars worth more than $100,000, according to the indictment.
Envelopes of cash were allegedly found in jackets with Menendez’s name that were hanging in his closet. Prosecutors included photos of some of the cash and two of the gold bars they say were seized:
Government exhibit
Government exhibit
Federal agents conducting the search also found numerous items paid for by Hana, Daibes or Uribe, including home furnishings and a Mercedes-Benz convertible, according to the filing.
The indictment details numerous actions Menendez and his wife allegedly took to benefit the three co-defendants.
Prosecutors allege that in the course of the “corrupt relationship,” Menendez promised to undertake official acts in exchange for the bribes that benefited him and his wife. The senator is accused of providing sensitive, nonpublic government information about the number of people serving at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to Nadine Menendez, who was then his girlfriend, which she allegedly forwarded to Hana. Hana then shared the information with an unnamed Egyptian government official, according to the indictment.
Justice Department lawyers said Menendez also “improperly advised and pressured” a high-level Department of Agriculture official and urged the department to stop interfering with a business monopoly granted to Hana by the Egyptian government.
He is also accused of using to use his influence and power as a senator to disrupt a criminal investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office related to Uribe. They allege he used that sway to recommend President Biden nominate a candidate to serve as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, someone who Menendez believed he could influence regarding the federal criminal prosecution of Daibes.
Menendez’s Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The New Jersey senator was indicted in 2015 on roughly a dozen charges, including bribery and conspiracy, following accusations he accepted gifts from a wealthy Democratic donor in exchange for political favors. That case ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than a week.
Sources confirmed to CBS News in October 2022 that Menendez was under criminal investigation in New York.
First elected to Congress in 1992 to represent New Jersey’s 13th Congressional District, Menendez was appointed to the Senate in 2006 and elected to a full term later that year. In the course of his tenure in the Senate, Menedez rose to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post he resumed when Democrats took control of the upper after the 2020 election.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
