WATCH LIVE: Prosecutors unseal indictment charging Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife
Prosecutors unseal indictment charging Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife.
Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is being charged with bribery offenses in a federal indictment out of the Southern District of New York to be unsealed Friday, prosecutors announced.
"Today, I'm announcing that my office has obtained a three count indictment charging Senator Robert Menendez, his wife, Nadine Menendez, and three New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes for bribery offenses," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a press conference late Friday morning.
NBC News 4 reported Monday that the FBI and IRS criminal investigators are attempting to determine if Menendez or his wife had taken up to $400,000 worth of gold bars from Fred Daibes, a New Jersey developer and former bank chairman, or his associates in a swap for Menendez reaching out to the Justice Department to aid the "admitted felon" accused of banking crimes.
The unsealed indictment alleges that from at least 2018 through 2022, Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, "engaged in a corrupt relationship" with Daibes, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe.
Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Bob Menendez)
The couple is accused of accepting "hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using Menendez's power and influence as a senator to seek to protect and enrich Hana, Uribe, and Daibes and to benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt."
The alleged bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and "other things of value." Menendez disclosed that his family had accepted gold bars in 2020.
In response to the indictment, Menendez said prosecutors "misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office" and are trying to "dig my political grave."
"For years, forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave. Since this investigation was leaked nearly a year ago, there has been an active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists," Menendez said in a statement.
He continued: "The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent. They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.
READ THE SDNY INDICTMENT BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE
"Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals."
Menendez said he has been "falsely accused" before and asked voters to wait for a trial before accepting "the prosecutor's version" of the facts.
Menendez's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors say that Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, provided sensitive U.S. government information to Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, that "secretly aided the Government of Egypt." The indictment states that Menendez improperly pressured an official at the Department of Agriculture to protect a business monopoly granted to Hana by the Egyptian government. Hana then allegedly kicked back profits from his monopoly to Menendez.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., arrives for President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy's meeting with U.S. Senators in the Capitol on Thursday, September 21, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The senator is also accused of using his office to disrupt New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin's investigation into Uribe and his associates. The indictment further alleges that Menendez influenced President Biden to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez believed could be swayed against prosecuting his associate Daibes.
Menendez has supported the nomination of U.S. Attorney Phillip Sellinger. Sellinger had previously acted as a fundraiser for Menendez's campaign. However, Sellinger had recused himself from the Daibes prosecution, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson told NBC News 4.
Daibes faced bank fraud charges that could have netted him up to a decade in prison for lying about a nearly $2 million loan from Mariner's Bank, where Daibes served as chairman.
Last year, however, New Jersey's U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to let Daibes plead guilty to one count and serve probation. They said Daibes had repaid the loan.
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Williams said that FBI special agents executed search warrants on Menendez's residence and safe deposit box as part of their investigation. The agents found "approximately $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in closets," including cash stuffed in the senator's jacket pockets, Williams detailed. Some of the cash and envelopes had fingerprints and DNA matching Daibes.
Investigators also found a Mercedes Benz that Uribe allegedly provided the senator, as well as three kilograms of gold.
"My office remains firmly committed to rooting out public corruption without fear or favor and without any regard to partisan politics," Williams said. "This investigation is very much ongoing. We are not done."
In April, Menendez established a legal defense fund to help pay for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees relating to the federal criminal probe.
Menendez was previously indicted on federal bribery charges in 2016. That case related to a wealthy Florida eye doctor and longtime friend who gave generous donations to Menendez and allegedly received benefits in return.
However, the Department of Justice dropped those charges in 2018, and the new probe is unrelated to that case.
Though he will be charged, Menendez can continue serving in the Senate. He is up for re-election in 2024.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Fox News' Joe Schoffstal contributed to this report.
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