U.S. Senate chairman on foreign relations Bob Menendez resigns over bribery allegation
Top United States Senator Bob Menendez and his wife have been charged with bribery, as prosecutors accused the pair of accepting bribes for a range of corrupt acts, including influencing foreign policy for the benefit of Egypt.
Menedndez who is Senate’s chairman of foreign relations has stepped down after his indictment.
As he fights the bribery allegations, Menendez temporarily resigned from his position as chair of the influential foreign relations committee of the chamber, BBC News reported Saturday.
The senator has refuted the accusations.
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan on Friday accused Menendez and his wife Nadine of accepting hundreds of dollars in bribes in connection to their relationship with three New Jersey businessmen.
Menendez allegedly agreed to use his official position to benefit Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, Fred Daibes, and the government of Egypt in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to Menendez and his wife Nadine, which included Gold Bars, cash, and a luxury convertible
In a statement after the charges were made public, Menendez said he was the subject of an “active smear campaign”. He also accused prosecutors of making false claims about him and his wife and suggested opponents could not “accept that a first-generation Latino American” might serve with integrity in the US legislature.
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“They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office,” the statement said. “On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.”
Menendez, the 69-year-old chair of the influential US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, had previously been charged in New Jersey with accepting private flights, campaign contributions and other bribes from a wealthy patron in exchange for official favours.
However, a 2017 trial ended in a jury deadlock. The senator cited his past legal woes in his statement on Friday.
“To my supporters, friends and the community at large, I ask that you recall the other times the prosecutors got it wrong and that you reserve judgement,” he said.
Menendez, who has been in the US Senate since 2006, appears to be the first sitting senator in US history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations, according to a list maintained by the Senate Historical Office.
Menendez faces re-election next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington. Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.
Menendez first publicly disclosed that he was the subject of a new federal investigation last October. Prosecutors declined at the time to comment, but some details of their investigation emerged in news reports and court records.
They are seeking to have Menendez forfeit assets including his New Jersey home, a 2019 Mercedes-Benz and about $566,000 in cash, gold bars and funds from a bank account.
The businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — were also charged in the scheme.
Prosecutors said Hana, who is originally from Egypt, arranged dinners and meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials in 2018, during which the officials pressed the senator about the status of US military aid.
In exchange, Hana put Nadine Menendez on his company’s payroll, prosecutors said.
Egypt, at the time, was one of the largest recipients of US military aid, but the Department of State had withheld $195m in 2017 and cancelled an additional $65.7m until the country could demonstrate improvements in human rights and democracy.
Democrats in the senator’s home state of New Jersey have urged him to resign, but he has refused their requests.
Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate majority, announced on Friday that Mr. Menendez had opted to resign from his position as head of the powerful committee “until the matter has been resolved.”
