A witness at Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial testified Friday that the cost of certifying that meat sent to Egypt followed Islamic dietary requirements skyrocketed after a single U.S. company was given a monopoly in a cozy deal prosecutors say the Democrat arranged in return for bribes.
James Bret Tate, a U.S. diplomat who was based in Cairo for several years and promoted U.S. agricultural interests, told a Manhattan federal court jury how Halal meat certification ended up in the hands of a single company run by Menendez's codefendant, Wael “Will” Hana, rather than several companies that had done it in the past.
