Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez has been indicted on federal corruption charges

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was indicted Friday on corruption charges in Manhattan, N.Y., following a federal investigation that claimed he allegedly accepted luxury goods and large sums of money in bribes in exchange for committing corrupt acts, including providing sensitive information to the government of Egypt.

The indictment was unsealed in Manhattan federal court. Menendez, 69, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine, 56, are named in the indictment along with Fred Daibes, a real estate developer. Also charged were Wael Hana and Joseph Uribe.

In response to the charges, Menendez said in his first public statement that the indictment was full of false accusations and part of an active political smear campaign of “anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists.”

The indictment accuses Menendez and his wife of engaging in “a corrupt relationship with three New Jersey associates and businessmen” — Hana, Uribe and Daibes — and accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using” the senator’s power and influence over a years-long relationship. 

Menendez claimed that prosecutors “misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office.”

He continued, “On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.”

“Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction. Even worse, they see me as an obstacle in the way of their broader political goals.”

More charges may be brought as Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the investigation is ongoing. 

“We’re not done yet,” he said during a press conference Friday. He encouraged anyone with more information to come forward.

The federal indictment said that from 2018 to 2022, Menendez allegedly used his position, power and influence to hand over sensitive information that benefited the government of Egypt as well as Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman with close ties to Egyptian government officials, and others.

In exchange, the Menendez couple received bribes that included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle and other things of value, the indictment claims.

Federal prosecutors also allege that Menendez “improperly advised and pressured an official at the United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to Hana by Egypt and used in part to fund the bribes being paid” to the senator and his wife.

The development comes about six years after Menendez was tried on unrelated claims of corruption – a trial that ended with a hung jury.

Menendez referenced that case in his public statement saying, “They wrote these charges as they wanted; the facts are not as presented. Prosecutors did that the last time and look what a trial demonstrates. People should remember that before accepting the prosecutor’s version.”