Was the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair bought by the Egyptian government?
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife Nadine Arslanian arrive for a state dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has been indicted yet again.
On Thursday, prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed a superseding indictment in the bribery and corruption case against Menendez, his wife Nadine Menendez, and three businessmen.
The new charge accuses Menendez, Nadine, and businessman Wael Hana of conspiring to have a public official — Menendez, who until recently chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — act as an agent of the Egyptian government.
Menendez used his “influence and power” to “breach his official duty in ways that benefited the Government of Egypt” in exchange for “hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes,” prosecutors claim. Part of this, they say, involved Menendez’s efforts to facilitate foreign military sales and financing to Egypt, despite the objections of some other senators.
The original indictment, filed in September, alleged that the Menendezes accepted “cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle,” and other bribes in exchange for Menendez using his senatorial influence to benefit the businessmen. Prosecutors say they found almost half a million dollars in cash during a search of the couple’s home, including some inside Menendez’s jackets, as well as more than $100,000 worth of gold bars.
US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York
The Egyptian angle is that Hana funneled money from a lucrative contract with the Egyptian government to the Menendez family while also arranging meetings between them and Egyptian officials who were trying to get more military aid. At one point, an Egyptian official texted Hana that if Menendez helped them out on military aid that was being held up, “he will sit very comfortably,” prosecutors say. They also allege Menendez “provided sensitive US government information” to the Egyptian government.
Meanwhile, prosecutors further allege that Menendez called state prosecutors to try and “disrupt” an investigation into another businessman in exchange for a car. And they claim Menendez tried to get President Joe Biden to appoint a US attorney for New Jersey who would scuttle yet another investigation for a donor — in exchange for “cash, furniture, and gold bars.”
That’s … a lot. Now, one catch is that Menendez has beaten an indictment before — prosecutors accused him of bribery and corruption back in 2015, but the jury deadlocked at trial.
This time around, though, the evidence appears more extensive and damning. Prosecutors quote from text messages exchanged among the alleged conspirators, and even internet searches by Menendez (including “how much is one kilo of gold worth”). And they spend a great deal of time pointing out how specific gifts or payments happened immediately before or after Menendez intervened in a way the businessmen wanted.
But Menendez has sounded defiant, claiming last month that “for years, forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave,” and claiming that his enemies “simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a US Senator and serve with honor and distinction.”
Though many leading Democrats have called on Menendez to resign, he has adamantly refused, and may still run for reelection in 2024. But he’s already facing a primary challenge from Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), and two recent polls showed Kim surging to a massive lead and Menendez’s support collapsing to about 10 percent. So it seems like Menendez’s luck may be about to run out.
Bob Menendez’s rise to power, and his first indictment, explained
The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez rose to power in the Democratic machine of Hudson County, New Jersey, serving as a mayor and then a member of Congress. Corruption rumors have dogged him since he was first appointed to the US Senate in 2006. When he was running for a full term that year, word leaked that federal prosecutors were scrutinizing a nonprofit he had helped get millions in federal grant money — and that had paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent. No charges were brought, and Menendez won a full term.
He quickly rose through the Democratic ranks in the Senate and became chair of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2013. A standard-issue Democrat on most domestic issues, he was sometimes a thorn in the Obama administration’s side on foreign policy, criticizing deals Obama struck with Iran and Cuba. He also started living large, taking lavish trips and accepting gifts funded by a campaign donor, wealthy Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen. This again drew federal prosecutors’ scrutiny, and in 2015, Menendez got his first indictment on bribery and corruption charges.
But prosecutors’ case ran into a problem. They presented ample evidence that Menendez used the power of his office to help Melgen out — he advocated on Melgen’s behalf in a billing dispute he was having with Medicare, and intervened in various matters pertaining to a cargo screening contract Melgen had with the Dominican Republic. But they needed to prove a quid pro quo — that Menendez was performing “official acts” specifically in return for the gifts and donations. And defense attorneys argued that they were just good friends helping each other out. Their argument prevailed: In 2017, the prosecution ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury.
Menendez now seemed vindicated. He soon regained his former post as top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee (he had stepped back from it while his prosecution unfolded). There was no serious Democratic effort to dislodge him; he only faced an unknown in his 2018 primary, though he got a surprisingly weak 62 percent of the vote against her — and he beat his Republican challenger pretty easily in the general election.
Prosecutors’ explosive new allegations against Menendez
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife Nadine Arslanian arrive for a reception honoring the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife Mareva Mitsotakis in the East Room of the White House on May 16, 2022, in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Also in 2018, Menendez started dating the woman who would soon become his second wife — and alleged partner in crime — Nadine Arslanian. Before Nadine began dating Menendez, she had “lived a mainly private life” focused on raising two children rather than working, and had struggled financially after a divorce, the New York Times reported. She was unemployed before dating Menendez, and faced foreclosure on her home soon after — so she needed money.
Soon, the money — and more — started rolling in. Prosecutors argue that it did so because Menendez and his wife made corrupt deals with three businessmen.
1) Wael Hana, his halal business, and the Egyptian government
Wael “Will” Hana was a longtime friend of Nadine’s who had ties to Egyptian government officials. Shortly after Nadine began dating Menendez in 2018, she helped Hana arrange a series of meetings between Egyptian officials, the senator, and Nadine, often discussing arms sales and aid. Per prosecutors, Hana promised Nadine payments in exchange for facilitating these meetings and said he’d give her “a low-or-no-show job” at his company.
In spring 2019, Hana scored: The Egyptian government granted his company an exclusive monopoly on certifying that US food exports to Egypt were compliant with halal standards in Islamic law, even though he had no experience in this business area. Prosecutors do not say specifically why they believe Hana obtained this contract, but the implication is that his ties to Menendez were crucial. And Nadine sounded excited — per the indictment, she texted Menendez, “Seems like halal went through. It might be a fantastic 2019 all the way around.”
The US Department of Agriculture looked askance at the news, believing it would raise costs for US meat suppliers, so multiple officials contacted the Egyptian government to object. Menendez then called a high-level department official and demanded they back off. And once money was rolling in to Hana’s company, he began paying Nadine — including paying, through his company, $23,000 of her mortgage that was being foreclosed on.
Prosecutors claim that, in total, Hana paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks, cash, and gold to the Menendezes. In return, they claim, Menendez used his office to help the government of Egypt in various ways, including by providing non-public information about US embassy personnel and planned changes in arms policy.
At one point, for instance, senators were holding up military aid to Egypt in protest of their government’s handling of a 2015 incident where April Corley, an American roller skater, was shot and maimed by a (US-provided) Egyptian military helicopter.
Per the superseding indictment, after a meeting with Hana and Egyptian officials, Menendez searched Corley’s name. One week later, an Egyptian official texted Hana in Arabic that, if Menendez helped resolve the Corley incident, “he will sit very comfortably.” Hana answered: “Orders, consider it done.”
All this, in prosecutors’ telling, amounted to a conspiracy where the Egyptian government effectively bought the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair — with Hana as the middleman.
2) Jose Uribe’s legal trouble, and a Mercedes-Benz
Separately, Hana also connected the Menendezes with Jose Uribe, another businessman working in trucking and insurance (and who had previously been convicted of fraud). Uribe had some associates in legal trouble, with one already being prosecuted by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office and one being investigated by that same office, and he was concerned the cases could implicate him. Hana told the senator and Nadine about all this, and soon afterward, Menendez called the New Jersey attorney’s office, urging them to wrap up the prosecution.
Meanwhile, Nadine had gotten into a car accident and needed a new car, and texts suggest that Uribe had promised to pay for it. Eventually, he gave Nadine $15,000 that she used for a down payment on a Mercedez-Benz convertible (after which Nadine texted him, “I will never forget this”) and continued to make monthly payments on the car afterward. Prosecutors argue that this all amounts to Menendez trying “to disrupt New Jersey state criminal matters” in exchange for a car.
3) The prosecution of Fred Daibes, two kilos of gold, and some cash
Then there’s Fred Daibes, a longtime fundraiser for Menendez, who had been charged with bank fraud by the US Attorney’s office for New Jersey in 2018. With President Biden set to take office in 2021, it was time for a new US Attorney. Traditionally, senators from a state are deeply influential on the US attorney’s choice.
Menendez, prosecutors say, badly wanted it to be someone who would go easy on Daibes. He interviewed one candidate, attorney Philip Sellinger, and urged him to do so. When Sellinger said he’d probably have to recuse from the Daibes case, Menendez said he wouldn’t recommend him for the post, per the indictment.
Later, a Menendez adviser spoke to Sellinger about the case again, and the adviser reported back to Menendez that he might not have to recuse after all. Menendez eventually did recommend Sellinger for the post, and he was confirmed (and did end up recusing, to the senator’s frustration).
In October 2021, Menendez and Nadine returned from a foreign trip, and Daibes’s driver gave them a ride back to their house. The next day, prosecutors say Menendez did a web search for “how much is one kilo of gold worth.”
Then, in January 2022, Daibes’s driver called Nadine, and she texted Daibes: “Christmas in January.” Shortly afterward, Menendez called the Justice Department official who was overseeing Daibes’s prosecution. (Agents who later searched Menendez’s home discovered an envelope full of cash with Daibes’s driver’s fingerprints and Daibes’s DNA and return address.)
Later that month, Menendez again searched “kilo of gold price.” He also called the DOJ official again, and called Daibes immediately afterward. In March 2022, Nadine brought two one-kilogram gold bars (then worth $60,000 each) to a jeweler to be sold. The serial numbers on the gold bars, per prosecutors, indicate Daibes had previously possessed them.
What it all means
It’s pretty rare to get an old-fashioned bribery scandal at this level of national politics these days.
Of course, there’s endless amounts of “legal corruption” going around. Politicians regularly do favors to donors who fund their campaigns, since this is legal as long as there’s no direct quid pro quo. Ex-politicians or officials become lobbyists in industries they’d overseen. Foreign governments pay Donald Trump’s businesses. Hunter Biden rakes in big bucks for questionable work. Justice Clarence Thomas takes luxury trips.
But even compared to Menendez’s last indictment — based on his accepting trips and gifts in a Clarence Thomas-like way — this seems to be at a new level. Envelopes of cash and gold bars for a sitting national politician seem like something out of an earlier era.
The Democratic Party stuck by Menendez during his first indictment back in 2015 — when, notably, Republican Chris Christie was governor of New Jersey and would have filled Menendez’s seat if he resigned. Some may also have feared crossing the famously vindictive senator.
This time around, there’s a widespread sense that Menendez is toast. Top New Jersey Democrats like Gov. Phil Murphy and Sen. Cory Booker have called on him to resign, as have many other Senate Democrats. He has refused, but Kim has already announced his primary challenge and is leading polls overwhelmingly, and more contenders could enter the race. Menendez will have his day in court, but his time in political office appears to be drawing to an end.
Update, October 12, 3:20 pm ET: This article was originally published on September 22 and has been updated, most recently to include news of Menendez’s superseding indictment.
Sourse: vox.com
