Federal prosecutors in New York have filed a new indictment against New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife, accusing them of conspiring to act as an agent of the Egyptian government.
The new charge comes just weeks after the Democrat and his wife were accused of accepting bribes from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator to help with foreign affairs. The couple has pleaded not guilty.
The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the U.S. government if they act as “agents of a foreign principal.” “.
As a member of Congress, Menendez is prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he registered as such.
The indictment says the conspiracy occurred between January 2018 and June 2022. It alleges that in May 2019, Menendez, his wife and a business partner, Wael Hana, met with an Egyptian intelligence official in Menendez’s Senate office. in Washington. During the meeting, they discussed a U.S. citizen who was seriously injured in a 2015 Egyptian military airstrike using a U.S.-made Apache helicopter, the indictment says.
Some members of Congress opposed granting certain military aid to Egypt because of that episode and the perception by certain lawmakers that the Egyptian government was unwilling to fairly compensate the injured American citizen, according to the indictment.
More information soon
2023-10-12 16:56:00
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