N.J. senator pleads not guilty on bribery-related charges

NEW YORK — For the third time in six months, Senator Bob Menendez stood before a judge in Manhattan on Monday to be formally arraigned on charges in an expansive federal bribery case. He pleaded not guilty, just as he had twice before.

“Once again — not guilty, your honor,” Menendez told the judge, Sidney H. Stein of US District Court.

Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, has previously pleaded not guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for political favors and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice, a charge added last week in an updated indictment.

His wife, Nadine, also pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice.

Two New Jersey businesspeople accused of bribing the couple with gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, similarly reiterated their not-guilty pleas.

The new charges come less than two months before the scheduled start of the trial, which is May 6.

The obstruction of justice charges appear to be related to information provided by Jose Uribe, a former insurance broker accused in September in the bribery conspiracy. Earlier this month, Uribe admitted that he had tried to bribe the senator with a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for Menendez’s efforts to scuttle an insurance fraud investigation in New Jersey.

Uribe, 56, is now cooperating with prosecutors.

He told the judge that he and Nadine Menendez met at a hotel to get their stories straight after he received a subpoena in connection to the case. During that meeting, he said, he agreed to lie to investigators — and to his lawyer.

Menendez is in his third full term in the Senate. He has not said whether he would compete in a Democratic primary for reelection, as he had planned to do before he was indicted; the primary, on June 4, could occur in the middle of the federal trial.