Menendez, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is also accused of illegally helping the government of Qatar and acting as an agent of Egypt.
The Allegations Against Menendez
“This was not politics as usual,” Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz told jurors in New York federal court. “This was politics for profit. Robert Menendez was a United States senator on the take, motivated by greed, focused on how much money he could put in his pocket and in his wife’s pocket.”
Menendez, a three-term senator, lost his political support in the Senate and New Jersey after prosecutors displayed photographs of the gold bars and $480,000 in cash seized at his home in 2022.
The Defense’s Response
In his opening statement, Menendez attorney Avi Weitzman said the senator took no bribes. Menendez “did not accept cash or gold or a car in exchange” for corrupt actions, his lawyer said. “He’s an American patriot. He’s not an agent for the Egyptian government.”
Weitzman said prosecutors overplayed the role of cash and gold in the case. “Smells a bit fishy, you might be thinking to yourself,” Weitzman said. “You’ll see there are innocent explanations for the gold and the cash.”
Additional Insight Into the Trial
Menendez, 70, faced another corruption trial in 2017, but a federal judge in New Jersey declared a mistrial and prosecutors dropped the case.
Pomerantz said Menendez gave Egyptian officials “sensitive” non-public information about personnel at the US embassy in Cairo and helped Egypt obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid.
Accusations Against Menendez’s Associates
Nadine Menendez, who began dating the senator in 2018, joined Hana in trying to help Egyptian officials influence the senator, according to Pomerantz.
Hana is accused of bribing Menendez so that the senator would help protect the monopoly he secured from Egypt to certify US food exports as compliant with halal standards.
Financial Influence Allegations
Daibes, along with the federal bank fraud charges he faces in New Jersey, is also implicated in the Menendez trial. Pomerantz said Daibes bribed Menendez with cash and gold bars for the senator’s influence in the New Jersey case.
Menendez was “being bribed by Daibes to disrupt a criminal prosecution,” Pomerantz said.
Qatari Investment Connection
In June 2021, Daibes sought funding for a real estate project when Menendez introduced him to a Qatari royal family member who was the principal of a Qatari investment company, the US alleges.
Menendez has offered varying explanations for the cash, including claims that it reflected “decades of documented withdrawals by the senator from his own bank account.”
The case is US v. Menendez, 23-cr-490, US District Court, Southern District of New York.
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Published: 16 May 2024, 01:27 AM IST
