Menendez Sold Power of His Office to Aid Businessmen, US Says

US Senator Bob Menendez corruptly accepted bribes of gold, cash and a Mercedes Benz for using his power to help businessmen and to serve as a foreign agent of Egypt, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the end of his two-month trial.

Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, illegally enriched himself and his wife, Nadine, by offering his influence for a price, Assistant US Attorney Paul Monteleoni said during closing arguments in New York federal court. Nadine Menendez also was charged in the case, but will be tried later. 

“You’ve heard how a sitting US senator took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from two businessmen for promises to take action to protect them,” Monteleoni said. “The pattern was the same — Menendez was in charge, and his wife Nadine was the go-between.”

The 70-year-old senator is on trial with two businessmen — Fred Daibes, an influential New Jersey developer, and Wael Hana, an Egyptian American businessmen. Menendez also is accused of abusing his post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help Egypt secure military aid and gain access to sensitive US information. 

FBI agents seized $486,000 from the Menendez home, as well as 13 gold bars. Menendez’s lawyers say the cash represented money he regularly withdrew from the bank over the past 30 years, and that the gold bars came from his wife’s wealthy family in Lebanon. The senator’s defense team will present their summation of the case to the jury later.

Menendez, a three-term senator, has seen his political support evaporate in New Jersey and Washington since his indictment last September. Democrats shunned him, and he has said he’ll run as an independent in November.

Nadine Menendez was indicted with her husband, Daibes and Hana, but she’s undergoing cancer treatment. A third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and testified as a cooperating witness that he bribed the couple with a Mercedes so that Menendez would influence a criminal investigation pursued by New Jersey authorities.

Menendez denies wrongdoing, and his lawyer Avi Weitzman argued at the start of the trial that he’s not an agent of Egypt but was instead conducting diplomacy. They also say that Menendez was helping constituents, not performing illegal acts on behalf of Daibes, Hana and Uribe.

Weitzman blamed Nadine Menendez for not telling him about gifts she received from Daibes and Hana and for concealing the extent of her financial difficulties before they got married in 2020.

Menendez faces 16 charges, including bribery and acting as an agent of Egypt. He faces as much as 20 years in prison on the most serious charge.

This is the second corruption trial for Menendez, whose first trial ended with a hung jury in 2017 in New Jersey federal court. Prosecutors dropped that case.

The case is US v. Menendez, 23-cr-490, US District Court, Southern District of New York .

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