Senator Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, is facing new bribery charges, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Menendez is now accused of collecting payments and gifts in exchange for assisting Qatar in a multi-year corruption scheme that lasted from 2021 to 2023, one year longer than previously thought, according to the Justice Department.
Adam Fee, his attorney, said the fresh allegations “stink of desperation.”
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“Despite what they’ve claimed in press releases, the government lacks evidence to support any of the old or new allegations leveled against Senator Menendez,” Fee added. “Instead, they have a slew of baseless assumptions and bizarre conjectures based on routine, legal contacts between a Senator and his constituents or foreign officials.” They are making this a persecution rather than a prosecution.”
He went on to say that the senator acted responsibly in Qatar, Egypt, and other countries with which he contacts.
Menendez is already facing federal accusations for allegedly operating as a foreign agent and taking bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the Egyptian government through his Senatorial position and influence.
On September 23, Menendez, his wife Nadine, and three other New Jersey businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes — were accused in the federal bribery plot for the first time. They have all pled not guilty.
Menendez and his wife allegedly enriched themselves with cash, gold bars, and a luxury automobile, according to fresh charges. The gifts were given to the couple in exchange for Menendez using his influence to get the Qatari Investment Co. to invest in Daibes.
Menendez made multiple public statements in support of the Qatari government, which he subsequently gave to Daibes to share with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official. Daibes agreed to a million-dollar investment real estate project arranged by the investor.
According to the FBI and the IRS, Menendez and his wife accepted many gold bars and other presents from Daibes, a New Jersey entrepreneur and former bank chairman accused of banking fraud. According to the accusation, Menendez reportedly attempted to appoint a prosecutor sympathetic to Daibes.
The initial accusation claims that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, “engaged in a corrupt relationship” with Daibes, Hana, and Uribe from at least 2018 to 2022.
Following his arrest in September, Menendez resigned as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he has refused to resign.