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Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has been indicted on federal bribery charges, the Justice Department announced Friday.
The indictment alleges that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes and used the senator’s influence to enrich several businessmen from New Jersey, as well as the Egyptian government.
Menendez received cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other items of value, the filing says.
The indictment also alleges that Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and pressured an official at the Agriculture Department for the purpose of protecting Egyptian-American businessman Wael Hanna and the government of Egypt. Menendez interfered in an investigation undertaken by the New Jersey attorney general into New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe, it says.
Menendez “promised to and did use his influence and power and breach his official duty to recommend that the President nominate an individual for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who Menendez believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to the federal prosecution of Fred Daibes,” a New Jersey developer, the indictment says.
Menendez’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
The charges come after a yearlong corruption probe led by Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The federal investigation focused on whether the powerful Senate Foreign Relations chair and his wife improperly took cash and gifts including jewelry, use of a Mercedes-Benz and a luxury apartment and gold bars worth as much as $400,000. It also scrutinized any actions Menendez might have taken to help his benefactors.
Menendez has previously denied any wrongdoing. “I am sure it is going to end up in absolutely nothing,” he said of the probe in May.
The indictment is the second that Menendez has faced since being elected to the Senate in 2006.
He was charged in 2015 with illegally accepting favors from a Florida eye doctor, including flights on a private jet, three nights at a five-star hotel in Paris and more than $700,000 in political contributions.
The case ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors decided not to retry him.
Menendez is up for re-election next year. In 2018, he was elected to a third term with 54% of the vote.
Courtney Copenhagen contributed.
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