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Sen. Bob Menendez guilty of taking bribes in cash and gold and acting as Egypt's foreign agent (2024)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted of all charges Tuesday in a sweeping corruption trial in which he was accused of accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government.

A jury in Manhattan deliberated for parts of three days before finding the Democrat guilty of 16 crimes, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

Prosecutor said he abused the power of his office to protect allies from criminal investigations and enrich associates, including his wife, through acts that included meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials and softening his position toward that country as he speeded its access to millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

Menendez, 70, looked toward the jury at times and appeared to mark a document in front of him as the verdict was read. Afterward, he sat resting his chin against his closed hands, elbows on the table. He vowed to appeal as he left the courthouse.

“I have never violated my public oath. I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent,” Menendez said before a collection of microphones before walking briskly to a waiting car.

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Democrats consider expelling Menendez from the Senate after conviction in bribery trial

A meteor streaked over the NYC skyline before disintegrating over New Jersey

Menendez did not testify at the nine-week trial, but insisted publicly that he was only doing his job as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said gold bars found in his New Jersey home by the FBI belonged to his wife, Nadine Menendez. She too was charged, but her trial was postponed so she could recover from breast cancer surgery. She has pleaded not guilty.

The verdict potentially dooms Menendez’s chances of winning reelection as an independent.

The trial’s outcome prompted a chorus of Democrats to call on Menendez to resign, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New Jersey’s junior senator, Corey Booker, and the party’s nominee to replace Menendez, Rep. Andy Kim.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer’s statement said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who would appoint Menendez’s replacement, urged the Senate to expel him if he doesn’t resign. It’s not clear whether Schumer would be willing to hold those votes. Expulsion requires a two-thirds majority. A senator has not been removed from office in over a century.

Curtis Bashaw, the Republican candidate for the seat, also called on Menendez to quit, saying New Jersey deserves better than “corruption and made-for-tv political scandals, courtesy of Bob Menendez and the Democratic machine.”

The Senate Ethics Committee, meanwhile, will complete its own investigation of Menendez “promptly” and consider a “full range of disciplinary actions,” according to a statement from Democrat Chris Coons and Republican James Lankford, the committee’s chairman and vice-chairman.

Menendez faces the possibility of decades in prison. Judge Sidney H. Stein scheduled sentencing for Oct. 29, a week before Election Day.

This was the second corruption trial for Menendez. An earlier prosecution on unrelated charges in 2017 ended with a deadlocked jury.

“This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption, hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz. This wasn’t politics as usual, this was politics for profit. And now that a jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said outside the courthouse.

Two co-defendants were also convicted. The New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were accused of paying bribes. A third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty prior to trial and testified against the others.

Hana’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said he would file motions to set aside the verdict. The American system of justice “has, in his view, let him down,” Lustberg said. Daibes’ lawyer, César de Castro, also promised an appeal, saying: “We think the result was wrong.”

The trial took place in a federal courthouse a little more than a block from the state courthouse where former President Donald Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records. The two powerful men were on trial simultaneously for weeks.

The jury’s decision followed a lengthy probe that included a June 2022 FBI raid on Menendez’s home in Englewood Cliffs, a wealthy community just across the Hudson River from New York City. FBI agents seized nearly $150,000 worth of gold bars and $480,000 in cash, mostly in stacks of $100 bills, stuffed stuffed in boots, shoeboxes and jackets. In the garage was a Mercedes-Benz convertible.

Prosecutors argued that the gold, cash and car were bribes. Menendez’s lawyers disputed that, arguing that the gold belonged to his wife and she had kept him in the dark about financial troubles so grim that she nearly lost the home to foreclosure. They said the senator habitually hoarded money because his parents escaped Cuba in 1951 with only the cash they had hidden in a grandfather clock.

More shocking, though, were allegations that Menendez had earned some of the treasure by using his powerful perch on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to benefit Egypt, an important U.S. ally but one often subject to American criticism over alleged human rights abuses.

Prosecutors said Nadine Menendez held herself out as a conduit to her powerful husband, exchanging texts with an Egyptian general and helping to arrange a Washington visit by the chief of Egypt’s intelligence service. To one general she texted, “Anytime you need anything you have my number and we will make everything happen.”

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports Senator Bob Menendez found guilty on federal charges including accepting bribes.

Sen. Menendez, prosecutors said, took actions to ingratiate himself with Egyptian officials, including providing them with information about the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in military aid. The senator also told his wife to let her Egyptian contacts know he planned to sign off on $99 million in tank ammunition.

Prosecutors said serial numbers on the gold bars and fingerprints on tape that bound together the stacks of cash were traced to Hana and Daibes.

Prosecutors said Menendez took numerous actions to benefit the businessmen, including protecting Egypt’s decision to award Hana a lucrative monopoly to certify that meat sent to Egypt met Islamic dietary requirements. Menendez asked a U.S. agriculture official to drop his opposition to the monopoly deal despite concerns it would drive up prices.

Uribe testified at the trial that he paid for Nadine Menendez to get a Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for the senator’s help assuring that his insurance business would not be affected by New Jersey criminal probes of a trucking company belonging to his friend.

Prosecutors also said Sen. Menendez attempted to interfere in a federal criminal prosecution of Daibes, a politically influential real estate developer accused of bank fraud. The U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Philip Sellinger, testified at the trial that Menendez questioned him about the Daibes prosecution and said he believed he was “being treated unfairly.”

Prosecutors also presented evidence that Menendez took actions favorable to Qatar’s government to help Daibes secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund.

Menendez’s political career began in 1974 when, only two years out of high school, he was elected to the education board in Union City, New Jersey. He later served in the state legislature, then was elected to the U.S. House in 1992. He became a U.S. senator in 2006.

Menendez had the dubious distinction of being the only U.S. senator indicted twice.

In 2015, he was charged with letting a wealthy Florida eye doctor buy his influence through luxury vacations and campaign contributions. After a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict in 2017, New Jersey federal prosecutors dropped the case rather than put him on trial again.

Voters accepted the mistrial as an exoneration and returned Menendez to the Senate.

After his second indictment last summer, Menendez claimed he was being persecuted, saying some people “cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator.”

Sen. Bob Menendez guilty of taking bribes in cash and gold and acting as Egypt's foreign agent (2024)

FAQs

Sen. Bob Menendez guilty of taking bribes in cash and gold and acting as Egypt's foreign agent? ›

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted of all charges Tuesday in a sweeping corruption trial in which he was accused of accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government.

What is Bob Menendez known for? ›

He has earned a national reputation for his international leadership in the Senate, which pairs with his long-time reputation as a fighter for New Jersey families who puts their health care, economic security and education ahead of powerful special interests.

What did Nadine Menendez do? ›

Nadine and Bob were both indicted on federal bribery charges

According to the 39-page indictment, the couple accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in return for the protection of Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes and to "benefit" the government of Egypt.

What religion is Senator Menendez? ›

Catholics (27)
SenatorPartyReligion
Ben Ray LujánDemocratCatholic
Joe ManchinDemocratCatholic
Ed MarkeyDemocratCatholic
Bob MenendezDemocratCatholic
23 more rows

Is Bob Menendez still in Congress? ›

Senator Robert Menendez (1954 - ) In Congress 1993 - Present | Get alerts.

What business was Jose Menendez? ›

What Did Jose Menendez Do For A Living? Jose was 35 when he became executive vice president at Hertz, a subsidiary of Radio Corporation of America, more commonly known as RCA. In 1980, he became head of the company's record division, RCA-Ariola.

What committees does Robert Menendez serve on? ›

Bob Menendez is a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and serves on the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight, the Subcommittee on Health Care, and Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness.

Is Bob Menendez married? ›

Where did Kitty Menendez go to college? ›

She attended college at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. There she met her future husband, Jose Menendez, whom she married in 1964.

Where is Kitty Menendez buried? ›

Ultimately, Jose and Kitty Menendez were buried on August 25, 1989, in the Princeton Cemetery in Mercer County, New Jersey.

Is Bob Menendez a Democrat? ›

What was Sen Menendez bribery? ›

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was found guilty on all counts Monday after being tried on charges of accepting bribes, including cash and gold bars, to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

Does Bob Menendez have a son? ›

A member of the Democratic Party and son of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, he was a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 2021 to 2023. Robert Jacobsen Menendez Jr. Union City, New Jersey, U.S.

Where is Sen Menendez from? ›

Bob Menendez
Personal details
BornRobert Menendez January 1, 1954 New York City, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Other political affiliationsMenendez for Senate (2024)
45 more rows

Who is Bob Menendez's daughter? ›

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez's daughter Alicia six months pregnant with the senator's first grandchild. She lives in Miami, Fla., ground zero for the Zika virus in the United States. In order to make that point, Menendez took to the floor of the senate on Thursday afternoon to make his case for Zika funding.

How old is Sen Menendez's wife? ›

The 70-year-old's wife, Nadine Menendez, is a co-defendant, though she will be tried separately. Both deny the charges, which threaten to destroy his career. Mr Menendez said in a statement on Thursday that his 57-year-old wife would undergo a mastectomy following her diagnosis with Grade 3 breast cancer.

Who is the senator for South Jersey? ›

The state's current senators are Democrats Bob Menendez (serving since 2006) and Cory Booker (serving since 2013). Frank Lautenberg was New Jersey's longest-serving senator (1982–2001; 2003–2013).

Who is the daughter of Bob Menendez? ›

On the September 30 broadcast of her MSNBC show American Voices, Alicia Menendez opened by recusing herself from covering her father's criminal indictment.

Who is Jose Uribe in New Jersey? ›

The North Jersey businessman who admitted making concealed payments on the $60,000 luxury car, Jose D. Uribe, is the least known of the five people indicted in the sweeping corruption scandal that extends to Egypt and Qatar — but he's potentially the most significant.

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