Menendez accused of trying to act for Egypt

Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who was charged last month with taking bribes in exchange for lucrative political favors, faced a stunning new accusation Thursday: that he conspired to act as an agent of Egypt even as he served as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Manhattan federal prosecutors filed the latest charge against Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, as well as a third defendant, Wael Hana, accusing them of conspiring to have the senator work on

Egypt’s behalf without registering with the Justice Department.

The prosecutors have asked a judge to seize the Menendezes’ residence in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., as well as a Mercedes-Benz convertible that the government says was given to them as a bribe.

The alleged actions underlying the latest charge cut to the heart of Menendez’s Senate oath to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the U. Constitution and are certain to intensify pressure for him to resign from office. The charge accuses him of conspiring to violate an explicit prohibition on public officials serving as agents of foreign powers and appears to be the first time a sitting senator has been charged with conduct covered by the World War II-era Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Menendez, 69; Nadine Menendez, 56; Hana; and two other businesspeople were accused last month in what prosecutors and FBI officials described as a scheme to use the senator’s influence to increase US aid and military sales to Egypt in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars, bars of gold bullion, and the Mercedes-Benz.

The new indictment charges that from 2018 through 2022, Menendez, his wife, and Hana conspired to have the senator act as an agent of Egypt. The indictment cites two meetings in Manhattan restaurants attended by the senator and Hana. Nadine Menendez was also present at one of the meetings, in 2018.

“I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country — the United States of America,” Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a statement Thursday. “I again ask people who know me and my record to give me the chance to present my defense and show my innocence.”

After the initial indictment was made public last month, Menendez stepped down as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. But he has rejected calls from fellow Democrats to resign from the Senate.