By Camila Aponte 
Union, New Jersey – Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) responded to his three-time indictment charge on Monday, September 25 following a federal investigation that found over 480,000 dollars in cash in his home in New York and over 70,000 dollars in his wife’s safe deposit box.
Menendez and his wife have been accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribery money, gold bars, and various lucrative gifts such as a Mercedez Benz car and mortgage payments. The indictment states that Menendez had a close relationship with three businessmen from his home state of New Jersey, one who had previously been convicted of fraud and had his insurance license revoked.
“Now this may seem old-fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived,” said the Senator in his press conference, making his first public appearance after the 39-page indictment document was revealed. He claimed that he prefers to have stashes of cash at home following his family’s history of money confiscation under Communist Cuba.
One instance of bribery, detailed by the indictment document, states that Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, was a close friend of one of the three businessmen, Wael Hana, who was originally born in Egypt. Nadine and Hana then introduced the Senator to Egyptian intelligence officials and worked to strengthen this relationship that “helped establish a corrupt agreement.” According to the indictment, the bribes allegedly came in exchange for providing Egyptian government officials with sensitive U.S. government information, ranging from foreign military financing to foreign military sales while he was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
In response to the bribery charges related to Egyptian officials, the Senator stated, “My record is clear and consistent in holding Egypt accountable for its unjust attention of American citizens and others, its human rights abuses, its deepening relationship with Russia, and efforts that have eroded the independence of the nation’s judiciary among a myriad of concerns.”
While the Senator agreed to step down as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in fulfillment of the rules of the Democratic Caucus, it is unclear if he will resign as Senator or sustain from seeking re-election in 2024.
In his press conference, the Senator affirmed that “instead of waiting for all the facts to be presented, others have rushed to judgment because they see a political opportunity for themselves or those around them.”
This is not the first time the Senator has been tied to bribery scheme charges. In 2014, the Senator was tied to 14 counts after allegedly receiving thousands of dollars in gifts and campaign donations. However, the charges were dropped in 2017.
The 69-year-old Senator, his 56-year-old wife, and the three businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes are expected to report to a Manhattan federal court this Wednesday.