Causes.com
| 10.12.23

Sen. Menendez Charged With Acting as Egyptian Foreign Agent
Should Menendez resign?
Updated Oct. 12, 2023, 1:43 p.m. PST
- Federal prosecutors have filed a superseding indictment against Sen. Bob Menendez, charging him with being an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government. The indictment accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires individuals to register with the government if they are acting as “an agent of a foreign principal.”
- As a member of Congress, Menendez was completely prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he had registered.
- The indictments claims that while he was chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, he worked to secretly aid Egyptian officials. It states that he “promised to take and took a series of acts on behalf of Egypt, including on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials." The indictment describes several specific incidents.
- His trial on corruption charges will begin next May.
Updated Sept. 26, 2023, 10:36 a.m. PST
- Sen. Menendez has said he will not resign in light of an indictment on bribery charges. He has, however, resigned from his post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
- During a Monday press conference, he said:
"This will be the biggest fight yet, but as I have stated throughout this whole process, I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be the New Jersey's senior senator. The allegations leveled against me are just that — allegations."
- Menendez is facing calls to resign from roughly half the Democrats in New Jersey's congressional delegation, as well as New Jersey's Gov. Philip Murphy (D).
- Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that Menendez "should resign in the best interest of our state."
What's the story?
- Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine, have been indicted on bribery charges.
- Menendez and his co-defendants, which include three New Jersey businessmen, are expected to appear at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27, and will be arraigned later that day.
- Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the charges today. He said that Menendez has violated his commitments as a Senator and has been taking bribes throughout his term.
- The indictment comes after a year-long corruption probe led by Williams's office and is the second indictment that Menendez has faced since he began serving in the Senate. Menendez is the first sitting senator in U.S. history to be indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations.
What are the charges?
- Menendez has been charged over the alleged receipt of "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in exchange for his influence, which helped to enrich three New Jersey businessmen and assist the Egyptian government.
- The charges against Menendez include conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The indictment also alleges that Menendez
"provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt."
- The senator allegedly pressured an official at the U.S. Agriculture Department to protect the business monopoly that was granted by Egypt to New Jersey businessman Wael Hana, who is Egyptian American. According to the indictment, Hana and Nadine Menendez "were friends for many years" before she started dating the senator.
- The senator allegedly sought highly sensitive "non-public information" that could "pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public" in May 2018. He then texted the information to Nadine, who forwarded it to Hana. Hana then forwarded it to an Egyptian government official.
What did the search warrant reveal?
- According to the charges, the couple received cash bribes, gold bars, mortgage payment assistance, luxury vehicles, compensation for a "low or no-show job," and "other items of value." Federal agents state that they discovered many of the items while conducting a search warrant of the couple's Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022.
- During the search, they found over $480,000 in cash "stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe."
- Agents also found a $60,000 Mercedez-Benz convertible that Hana and Jose Uribe gifted to Nadine in exchange for her husband's interference in a state criminal prosecution of Uribe's associate and an investigation into one of Uribe's relatives.
Menendez's response
- Menendez brushed off the charges, saying:
"I remain focused on continuing this important work and will not be distracted by baseless allegations."
- Nadine Menendez's lawyer, David Schertler, said his client "denies any wrongdoing and will defend vigorously against these allegations in court."
Should Menendez resign?
-Emma Kansas
(Photo Credit: Canva/Ting Shen/People.com via Getty)
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The evidence is pretty damning. I'd like to see him resign. He should be removed from office & placed in prison if found guilty of these charges.
Im so disgusted by self-serving politicians!!!
This is sad and embarrassing. Menendez should resign so that NJ can get another senator to better represent them without conflict or the appearance of corruption.
Until republicans also get rid of their cheaters and crooks, I don't think anyone has a legitimate demand here. Let's allow the people to vote these allegated criminals out! This especially goes for the crooks and liars in the Supreme Court!!'
Need a "Maybe" for this one as only the Grand Jury has occurred to induct has occurred and not the Jury Trial.
Grand Jury of 24 peers has found probable cause and has indicted.
Next step is a jury trial of 12 peers to determine guilt or innocence.
It sounds like more and more Democrats are calling for Menendez to resign, including fellow NJ Senator Booker.
I can appreciate that Menendez is innocent until proven guilty, but in a time when Democrats are trying to say that they are they party of ethics and morals while Republicans are voting for a man who has been indicted on 91 charges, Menendez is giving Republicans a perfect 'what about?' deflection that they cannot afford.
If Menendez is proven innocent after all of this is over, then he can run for the Senate again or seek another office. Right now this is too toxic a distraction for a closely-divided Senate.
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? So why should Bob Menendez be forced to resign when a certain Republican with 97 felony indictments and judgements already against him, be allowed to run for the highest office in the country?
Another Dem crook go down.
REMOVE ALL CORUPT CONGRESS MEMBERS!
Did not learn from Biden how to hide corruption.
If the charges can be proven he should pay the price. His comments about keeping cash led to many more questions along with the gold. Those specific bars can be traced as to their origin. If these things are proven he needs to ???
It's that treason?
He probably won't although unlike Republicans, when Democrats behave badly, other Dems call for their resignation
More than " he should resign"-any member of Congress who has been found to have broken the Law should be expelled at once!
This includes all of those whom participated in January the 6th, and as well, George Santos!
And be incarcerated and fined. He represents the worst in our society. And a so called elected official that lowers his status even more. NJ voters should be infuriated.
Anyone under indictment should resign.
Why are criminals "asked" to resign? Political status should not be not a defense against criminal activity. How does this continue with impunity?
He should resign and not be able to collect a pension funded by tax payer dollars.
This is even more awful news about Menendez. I wish someone around him would shake some sense into him and tell him to step down from the Senate.
Again, innocent until proven guilty, but every decision he makes will be clouded by these charges until he's been cleared. The people of New Jersey deserve better representation who will not be distracted by these charges.
While we're talking about corruption, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has only been governor for a few months, and she's already facing scrutiny for abuse of taxpayer funds:
https://apnews.com/article/huckabee-sanders-lectern-audit-arkansas-353b5ee14e0ed13d7d1b0df694433fdc
https://arkansasadvocate.com/2023/10/10/emails-support-whistleblowers-claim-that-arkansas-governor-altered-public-records-attorney-says/
I guess corruption doesn't always take years to fester...
YES just as Santos and other assholes in Congress should resign due to their criminal activities.
Yes he should resign he's an idiot.
And now on to something more important. Everything Trump has ever touched be it a person or business or institution he has ruined lt and now he has ruined the republican party.
Trump is like the black plague, the anti-Midas touch. So many people that gathered around him have gone to prison or lost everything they have. Trump is like a leech he sucks the life out of everything and destroys it.
Let's lock this criminal idiot up and move on with our lives and make this country a better place for everyone.
Of course he should resign.
The moral,ethical thing to do is reign while preparing his defense as he awaits trial and its outcome.
Meantime remove him from any committee /group he may serve on in the senate.
He is innocent until proven guilty. However, charges as grotesque as these cannot be frabricated. He is obvioulsy crooked to the core and has no moral authority to be in a positon of trust and paid for with tax payers dollars. He should already be gone and sitting beside Trump in prison.
He is not the only one!