Sen. Bob Menendez hit with new charge of conspiring to act as foreign agent

Washington — New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, have been accused by the Justice Department of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Egypt, according to new court documents unsealed Thursday.

The superseding indictment filed in federal district court in New York charges Menendez with one count of conspiracy for a public official to act as an agent of a foreign principal, the Egyptian government and its officials. Federal law prohibits Menendez, as a public official, from serving as a foreign agent.

Prosecutors said that Menendez "further promised to take and took a series of acts on behalf of Egypt, including on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials, and conspired to do so with" Wael Hana, a New Jersey businessman from Egypt who runs a halal meat company, and his wife.

The new allegations against Menendez

The new indictment claims that Hana and Nadine Menendez "communicated requests and directives from Egyptian officials to Menendez." Neither Hana nor Nadine Menendez registered as foreign agents or lobbyists, the Justice Department said.

Menendez, along with Nadine Menendez, Hana and two other New Jersey businessmen were charged last month for allegedly engaging in a bribery scheme that prosecutors said involved the senator accepting lavish bribes in exchange for official acts. 

Menendez and his wife were charged with three counts in the initial indictment, and he now faces a total of four counts. The senator pleaded not guilty to all charges during his arraignment on the three counts last month. He temporarily stepped down from his role leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after the original charges were brought.

In a statement Thursday, Menendez said, "The government's latest charge flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President El-Sisi on these issues. I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country — the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom."

Menendez continued to maintain his innocence: "Piling new charge upon new charge does not make the allegations true. The facts haven't changed, only a new charge. It is an attempt to wear someone down and I will not succumb to this tactic. I again ask people who know me and my record to give me the chance to present my defense and show my innocence."

The new charging document details at least two meetings Menendez and Hana had at Manhattan restaurants in June 2018 and September 2019, the second of which also included an unnamed Egyptian official.

Prosecutors claim that Nadine Menendez "had meetings and direct communications with multiple Egyptian officials, at least some of whom she understood were intelligence officials, and received requests from them, and conveyed information and requests from them to Menendez."

The alleged bribery scheme 

In the initial document, prosecutors said Nadine Mendez and Hana worked in the years after Nadine and the senator began dating to introduce him to Egyptian intelligence and military officials in an effort to solidify "a corrupt agreement." Under the deal, prosecutors alleged, Menendez and his wife would receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for acts beneficial to the Egyptian government.

The Justice Department said that a search of Menendez's New Jersey home in June 2022 yielded "the fruits of Menendez's and Nadine Menendez's corrupt bribery agreement."

Federal agents found more than $480,000 in cash, which was stuffed in envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe, according to court filings. Photographs included in the indictment show the gold bars and cash spread across a jacket bearing Menendez's name, as well as as Mercedes-Benz convertible that Nadine Menendez allegedly received through the allegedly bribery plot.

Nadine Menendez is accused of arranging meetings and dinners with Menendez and Egyptian officials in 2018, during which the senator allegedly promised to use his power to "facilitate" foreign military sales and financing in exchange for Hana — who paid for the dinners — putting his wife on his company's payroll. 

The allegations from the Justice Department prompted a flood of calls for Menendez to resign, including from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, fellow New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and many of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate. Following the latest accusation that Menendez conspired to act as a foreign agent, Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said the full Senate should vote to expel the New Jersey senator.

"We cannot have an alleged foreign agent in the United States Senate," Fetterman said in a statement. "This is not a close call."

But the senator has resisted the pressure to step down and instead vowed that he will be exonerated. 

Menendez last month said the cash found by agents during the search of his home was withdrawn from his personal savings account and kept for "emergencies," as has been his practice for decades. He also cited "the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba" to explain why he kept large amounts of cash in his home. 

The most recent charges come years after Menendez was indicted in 2015 on roughly a dozen counts, 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 when jurors were unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than a week.

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