Embattled U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has been hit with another superseding indictment in his federal corruption case, this time for obstruction of justice.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The 18-count indictment, which came down this afternoon, also includes charges such as conspiracy, a public official acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion, and honest services wire fraud.
The new charges claim that then-counsel for Menendez and his wife Nadine made “false and misleading statements” to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on at least three separate occasions.
“From at least in or about June 2022 through at least in or about June 2023, in the Southern District and elsewhere, Robert Menendez and Nadine Menendez … corruptly influenced, obstructed, and impeded, and endeavored to influence, obstruct, and impede, the due administration of justice,” federal prosecutors charge.
” … [The Menendezes] wrote checks and letters falsely characterizing the return of bribe money to Wael Hana, the defendant, and Jose Uribe, as repayment for loans, and caused their counsel to make statements regarding the bribe money from Hana and Uribe, and regarding Menendez’s awareness of this bribe money …”
The indictment continues that the Menendezes knew these statements were false and they had their attorneys make them in an effort to impede the investigation.
In a statement, Senator Menendez called today’s charges “a flagrant abuse of power” and indicated he would still be going to trial.
“Today’s superseding indictment is a flagrant abuse of power. The government has long known that I learned of and helped repay loans — not bribes — that had been provided to my wife,” he began.
“Not content — or capable — of meeting those facts fairly at trial, the government has now falsely alleged a cover-up and obstruction. The latest charge reveals far more about the government than it says about me. It says that the prosecutors are afraid of the facts, scared to subject their charges to the fair- minded scrutiny of a jury, and unconstrained by any sense of justice or fair play. It says, once and for all, that they will stop at nothing in their zeal to get me. These prosecutors are trying to get me to give in simply by making wild allegations again and again, without actually proving anything.”
He continued that he is innocent and he looks forward to proving it, regardless of what lengths “overzealous prosecutors” resort to.
This is the third superseding indictment in the case against New Jersey’s senior senator, previously alleging he acted as a foreign agent to Egypt and that he pushed for a development deal with the Qatar government for co-defendant Fred Daibes.
While all defendants in the case, where the Menendezes are accused of accepting cash, a new Mercedes-Convertible, and gold bars as bribes, pleaded not guilty in September, Uribe struck a deal on Friday where he admitted wrongdoing and agreed to testify against the senator.
Senator Menendez has filed two motions to dismiss, along with a motion to suppress evidence thus far, to no avail.
He is set to go to trial on May 6th, about a month before the June 4th primary, though even prior to today, it seemed unlikely he would run for a fourth term, participating with no Democratic conventions or debates thus far.
Instead, the primary currently looks like a scrap between First Lady Tammy Murphy and U.S. Rep. Any Kim (D-3), though Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina and Larry Hamm appear poised to file as well.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from U.S. Senator Bob Menendez.
