Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was hit with a superseding indictment on Thursday accusing him of accepting bribes from the Egyptian government and acting as a foreign agent while he served as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, NBC News reports. A Manhattan grand jury handed up an indictment on Thursday alleging that Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.” He could face up to two years in prison on the new charges.
Menendez and his wife Nadine pleaded not guilty last month to corruption charges alleging that they used his influence to collect hundreds of thousands in bribes. The new indictment alleges that Nadine Menendez and New Jersey businessman Wael Hana “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to Menendez for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement.”
Hana, along with fellow New Jersey businessmen Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, “provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to Menendez and Nadine Menendez, in exchange for Menendez’s acts and breaches of duty to benefit the Government of Egypt, Hana, and others, including with respect to foreign military sales and foreign military financing," prosecutors allege. The indictment accused Menendez of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government from January 2018 until June 2022. Menendez, who helped oversee billions in aid to Egypt as the Foreign Relations chair, temporarily stepped down last month after an earlier indictment alleged that he and his wife received bribes in the form of “cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value." Menendez has refused to resign despite calls from dozens of Democrats.
