Embattled Democrat Senator Bob Menendez (NJ) and his wife Nadine Menendez were charged with obstruction of justice in a new 18-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
The new charges are related to a bribery scheme that involves Egypt and Qatar.
CNN reported:
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was indicted Tuesday on a dozen new criminal charges related to a years-long bribery scheme involving the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
The new charges come days after one of the New Jersey businessmen who was previously indicted alongside Menendez, his wife Nadine Menendez, and two others agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the investigation.
Among the new charges in the superseding indictment are conspiracy, obstruction of justice, public official acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud.
Menendez had faced four counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, and conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent.
In January Menendez was hit with a second superseding indictment for praising Qatar in exchange for luxury watches.
“Menendez provided Daibes with these statements so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari Investor and a Qatari government official associated with the Qatari Investment Company,” the indictment said, according to NBC News.
In October Bob Menendez was charged with acting as a foreign agent in a superseding indictment.
The new indictment filed by a federal grand jury in Manhattan claims Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.”
Federal prosecutors previously announced that Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and his wife, have been indicted on charges of bribery and corruption.
Federal prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York obtained a 3-count indictment against Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Menendez.
Fred Daibes, a real estate developer, New Jersey businessman Wael Hana and Joseph Uribe were also charged.
“The Senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes….. cash, gold, home mortgage payments, jobs, cars, and other things of value” in exchange for “using his power and influence to protect and enrich [New Jersey] businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said.
Nadine Menendez was given a “no-show” or “low-show” job, a Mercedes Benz and other things of value, Damian Williams said.
Special agents discovered $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in closets. “Some of the cash was stuffed in the Senator’s jacket pockets. Some of the envelopes of cash contained Daibes’ fingerprints and Daibes’ DNA,” Williams said at a press conference last month.
evidence photos show cash, Mercedes and gold bars
Menendez previously used the race card after he was indicted.
“It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere,” Menendez said.
Despite being under federal indictment for acting as a foreign agent, Menendez is still attending classified briefings.
