Sen. Menendez faces new bribery charges after gold, cash found at home

By James On Sep 22, 2023

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife were indicted on bribery charges Friday following an investigation that uncovered $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash at their home, prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutors announced the charges against the Democrat on Friday, nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury. The latest indictment is not related to the previous charges alleging that Mr. Menendez accepted lavish gifts to pressure government officials on behalf of a Florida doctor.

The Senate Historical Office says Mr. Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in American history to be indicted on two unrelated criminal charges. Menendez faces re-election next year in an effort to extend his three-decade career in Washington as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

A lawyer for Mr. Menendez’s wife did not respond to a message seeking comment. Messages were left for Mr. Menendez’s Senate spokesman and his political adviser.

The first time Mr. Menendez was indicted, he was accused of using his political influence to help an ophthalmologist in Florida who had showered him with gifts and campaign contributions.

The new indictment follows a years-long investigation that, among other things, examined the conduct of a New Jersey businessman – a friend of Mr. Menendez’s wife – who obtained exclusive permission from the Egyptian government to confirm that meat imported into that country complies with Islamic dietary requirements. . Investigators also asked questions about the Menendez family’s interactions with a New Jersey developer.

Menendez faces re-election next year in an effort to extend his three-decade career in Washington as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

Mr. Menendez’s political career appeared to be over in 2015, when a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted him on multiple charges over favors he provided to a friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen.

The New Jersey senator was accused of pressuring government officials to settle a Medicare billing dispute in Dr. Melgen, arrange visas for the doctor’s girlfriends and help protect a contract for the doctor to supply port screening equipment to the Dominican Republic.

Mr. Menendez has always maintained his innocence. His lawyers said that campaign contributions and gifts from Dr. Melgen – which included trips on his private jet to a resort in the Dominican Republic and a vacation in Paris – were a sign of their long-standing friendship, and not a bribe.

Prosecutors dropped the case after a jury deadlocked on charges including bribery, fraud and conspiracy in November 2017, and a judge dismissed some charges.

The Senate Ethics Committee later reprimanded Mr. Menendez, ruling that he improperly accepted gifts, failed to disclose them, and then used his influence to advance Dr.’s personal interests. To promote milking.

But months later, New Jersey voters sent Mr. Menendez back to the Senate. He defeated a well-financed challenger in a midterm election that broke the Republican grip on power in Washington.

Dr. Melgen was convicted of health care fraud in 2017, but former President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence.

Mr. Menendez is widely expected to run for re-election next year.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Mr. Menendez has served continuously in public office since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union City, New Jersey. He was a state legislator and spent fourteen years in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, Governor Jon Corzine appointed Mr. Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor.

At least two other senators — Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas; Richard Kenney, D-Delaware – was indicted multiple times during his time in office, but each senator’s indictments involved overlapping allegations, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Neither Mr. Kenney nor Ms. Hutchinson were ultimately convicted, and both served their full terms. A total of 13 senators have been indicted throughout history, six of whom have been convicted, according to the Senate Historical Office. Two of those convictions were overturned.

Mr. Menendez first publicly announced last October that he was the subject of a new federal investigation. Prosecutors declined to comment at the time, but some details of their investigation emerged in news reports and court records.

In 2019, federal agents seized electronic devices and documents from the offices of IS EG Halal, a New Jersey company that the Egyptian government had named as the only company that could certify that imported meat met religious requirements. Several other companies doing this certification had previously been dismissed by Egyptian agricultural officials in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no previous experience in this field.

The move occurred the same year that Mr. Menendez became engaged to Nadine Arslanian. Ms. Arslanian is an acquaintance of IS EG Halal’s owner, Wael Hana, of Edgewater, New Jersey.

A lawyer for Ms. Arslanian, David Schertler, did not respond to a request for comment about his client’s international business work.

After news reports last May that federal prosecutors were investigating whether Mr. Menendez or his wife had received undeclared gifts from the company, Mr. Hana’s spokesman denied that any American officials had assisted the company.

“There is also no evidence that the contract was awarded based on bribery or corruption in Egypt or any other apparently suspicious activity – and no such thing has ever been alleged,” a spokesman for Mr Hana, Steven Goldberg, said in a recent release . email to Associated Press.