New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine pleaded not guilty Monday to the latest criminal charges in an alleged corruption case involving gold bars, a luxury car and other alleged bribes.
Last week, a federal grand jury in New York indicted the Democrat and his wife on two new charges linked to obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice, bringing the total number of charges the senator faces to 18, according to a copy of the indictment report.
“Once again, not guilty, your honor,” Senator Menendez told the judge during his arraignment in midtown Manhattan.
The FBI alleges the couple lied about the money they received for a new Mercedes convertible and home mortgage payments. The couple said the money was given to them as loans they planned to repay, but federal agents say all the cash payments were for alleged bribes.
In a statement, Menendez called last Tuesday’s accusation “a blatant abuse of power. The government has long known that I learned about and helped pay off loans (not bribes) that had been given to my wife.” The senator again maintained his innocence, stating that prosecutors are “scared” and have no evidence of any crime.
“The government has now falsely alleged cover-up and obstruction. The latest indictment reveals much more about the government than it does about me. It says prosecutors are afraid of the facts, afraid to submit their charges to impartial people under the scrutiny of a jury, and “unfettered by any sense of justice or fair play. He says, once and for all, that they will stop at nothing in their zeal to get me,” the statement continued.
“These prosecutors are trying to get me to give in by simply making wild accusations over and over again, without proving anything.”
David Schertler, Nadine Menendez’s Washington-based attorney, declined to comment on the new allegations.
WHAT DO PROSECUTORS ALLEGE?
Prosecutors said that from June 2022 to 2023, Menendez and his wife Nadine issued checks indicating they were repaying a loan to businessman José Uribe, when in fact no such loan existed.
Those checks, according to prosecutors, were presented to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in an attempt to obstruct justice by falsely characterizing the return of bribe money “in an effort to interfere with an investigation of Menendez, Nadine Menendez and others in the Southern District of New York.”
Uribe pleaded guilty in the so-called gold bullion corruption case, saying he paid bribes to the senator. He is now cooperating with prosecutors.
Uribe said he met with Nadine Menendez once the criminal investigation began and they both made up the story claiming that the money he gave them was not a bribe, but rather a loan.
Among the newest allegations included in the indictment, Menendez is accused of sending his then-lawyer to allegedly tell a false story to federal investigators in June and September 2023, a story that allegedly detailed that money he and his wife obtained were a loan. The lawyer said the senator had not been aware until 2022 of a $23,000 mortgage payment a businessman made on the Menendez home in New Jersey or of money another defendant paid for a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Prosecutors allege that Menendez also had his attorney say at the September meeting that Menendez in 2022 had learned that the payments were loans. Prosecutors wrote that Menendez knew and “had been aware of both the mortgage company payment and the car payments before 2022, and they were not loans, but bribe payments.”
Prosecutors also said in the rewritten indictment that Nadine Menendez had her attorney tell prosecutors last August that the mortgage payment and funds provided for the convertible were loans when she knew they were bribe payments.
The new charges allege that the couple was trying to obstruct justice in the weeks before they were charged last September with a variety of crimes.
According to the indictment, Menéndez and his wife accepted gold bars and cash from a real estate developer in exchange for the senator using his influence to get that businessman a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund. Menendez was also accused of helping another New Jersey business partner secure a lucrative deal with the government of Egypt.
Two other businessmen also pleaded not guilty. A trial is scheduled for May.
After his arrest, Menendez, 70, was forced to resign as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but said he would not resign from Congress.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Menéndez has held public office continuously since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union City, New Jersey. In 2006, then-Governor Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor.
2024-03-11 18:11:13
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