The wife of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was arraigned in court on Wednesday where she pleaded not guilty to new charges of conspiring with her husband and another man to act as agents of the Egyptian government.
These allegations against Nadine Menendez are part of a broader case involving bribery and unregistered foreign agent activities.
The revised superseding indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York on Oct. 12, accuses the senator of violating a law that prohibits members of Congress from acting on behalf of a foreign nation.
Prosecutors contend that Mr. Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt.”
The initial indictment originally accused the senator and his wife of being involved in a bribery scheme, which entailed them receiving cash, gold bars, and a high-end vehicle from businessmen in New Jersey who were looking to gain the senator’s support in foreign affairs matters.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein has scheduled the trial to begin on May 6, 2024.
Mr. Menendez, who has held his Senate seat since 2006, had previously pleaded not guilty to the initial indictment in September. The 69-year-old will be arraigned separately on the superseding indictment next week.
The senator denied those charges in a previous statement to The Epoch Times, asserting his loyalty to the United States.
“The government’s latest charge flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President El-Sisi, on these issues,“ Mr. Menendez said. ”I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country—the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom.”
During the hearing, Judge Stein denied a request by the third defendant, businessman Wael Hana, to remove a GPS monitoring device attached to his leg.
The judge cited concerns that Mr. Hana, who is both a U.S. and Egyptian citizen, was a flight risk due to his deep connections with the Egyptian government and significant overseas assets.
Mr. Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, argued that the electronic ankle bracelet was uncomfortable and disrupted his client’s sleep.
Prosecutors have alleged that Mr. Hana served as a middleman connecting Mr. Menendez to Egyptian officials.
In addition to Mr. Hana, the other co-defendants, including New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes and businessman Jose Uribe, also pleaded not guilty to the superseding indictment.
The indictment cites a text message chain allegedly used by the defendants to transmit sensitive information from Mr. Menendez to the Egyptian government.
In one text message, Mr. Menendez reportedly stated, “Tell Will [Hana] I am going to sign off this sale to Egypt today. Egypt: 46,000 120MM Target Practice Rounds and 10,000 Rounds Tank Ammunition: $99 Million.”
According to prosecutors, Ms. Menendez subsequently messaged Mr. Hana, who transmitted the information to Egyptian authorities, and in return received a positive “thumbs up” emoji as acknowledgment.
The new charges against the trio allege that they conspired to act on behalf of Egypt, including for Egyptian military and intelligence officials, from January 2018 to June 2022. An Egyptian intelligence official allegedly visited with Mr. Menendez, his wife, and their business associate Mr. Hana in Mr. Menendez’s Senate office in Washington in May 2019.
In a statement released last week, Mr. Menendez declared his intent to “show my innocence” at trial, while his wife, represented by her attorney, denied all allegations in the indictment.
Mr. Lustberg, Mr. Hana’s attorney, referred to the allegations that his client joined a plot to enlist Mr. Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian government as “absurd as it is false.”
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Armenian parents, Ms. Menendez met the New Jersey senator in 2019 at an IHOP restaurant in Union City, and they wed the following year.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars were discovered during a June 2022 search of their Englewood Cliffs home.
