Feds hit senator with new set of charges
Obstruction of justice crimes levied against Menendez
Federal prosecutors filed another superseding indictment Tuesday in their case against Sen. Bob Menendez, adding new charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice and alleging that he was working to benefit Qatar in addition to Egypt.
Menendez, New Jersey’s senior senator, was serving as chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the time covered by the investigation.
The senator, his wife, Nadine Arslanian, and three businessmen, Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, face corruption charges. Menendez and Arslanian allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars and a luxury car in bribes from Daibes, Hana and Uribe in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to help them resolve legal troubles.
The new indictment alleges that Menendez and Arslanian had tried to return some “but not all” of the money Uribe paid to get the Mercedes-Benz convertible that was given to Arslanian as part of the scheme.
Menendez and Arslanian allegedly characterized the return of the bribe money as repayment on a loan, including a $12,000 check with a memo line that read “personal loan,” the new indictment says.
Menendez’s attorney met with prosecutors in June and September 2023 to say he had been unaware of the more than $23,000 payment Hana had made on the mortgage of Arslanian’s house and that he thought the payments were loans. Arslanian’s attorney had a similar meeting in August 2023 and described the payments from Hana for her mortgage and Uribe for her car as loans.
According to the indictment, Uribe allegedly had an associate make a payment on the Mercedes in May 2019 from a corporate bank account opened at a bank branch in the Bronx.
There are also new allegations that Menendez, Arslanian and Daibes “willfully and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated and agreed together and with each other to commit an offense against the United States, to wit, obstruction of justice,” in the criminal prosecution that Daibes still faces in federal court in New Jersey.
Daibes also allegedly arranged for a car service for Menendez and Arslanian in October 2021 to bring them back from Kennedy Airport to their North Jersey home, and Arslanian allegedly took two 1-kilogram gold bars that had been given to her by Daibes to a jeweler in Manhattan in March 2022.
Last week, Uribe changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on seven counts, including conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud.
Uribe is scheduled to be sentenced on June 14. According to a plea agreement, he could face up to 95 years in prison, though he could win leniency by cooperating and testifying against the other defendants, which he has agreed to do. The seven-page plea agreement was signed by Uribe and his attorney on March 1.
The senator and his wife have fought back against the charges and used legal proceedings to try to change the course of the case.
Menendez spoke from the Senate chamber floor recently, saying the timing of the indictment, originally filed in September, and then updated in October and again in early January, is part of a plan by the government to keep the “sensational story in the press.”
Daibes, Qatar and Menendez
The indictment alleges that Menendez received payments including cash and gold bars from Edgewater developer Daibes in return for helping Daibes get a Qatari investment company with ties to that country’s government to invest in a Daibes property by doing things that were viewed as favorable to the government of Qatar.
In June 2021, Menendez allegedly introduced Daibes to a member of the Qatari royal family and the principal of the investment firm, who then negotiated a multimillion-dollar investment in one of Daibes’ New Jersey real estate properties.
Menendez would allegedly give statements supporting the Qatari government to Daibes before they were released publicly so he could share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official associated with the investment firm, the indictment says.
Menendez and Egypt
The indictment also alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez and his wife “engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe and Daibes” to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his “power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt.”
The senator has said the allegations that he worked as a foreign agent for Egypt are an “unprecedented accusation and it has never ever been levied against a sitting member of Congress.”
Menendez is up for reelection this fall, and to secure his spot on the ballot, he will need to win the primary on June 4, likely around the time of closing arguments in the case if the trial date stands.
Rep. Andy Kim and New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy are in the midst of a contentious Democratic primary battle for Menendez’s seat.