US Senator: US senator, wife face new charges of acting as foreign agent

NEW DELHI: The federal prosecutors filed new charges against US Senator Bob Menendez, accusing him of engaging in a conspiracy to act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government.
Prosecutors claimed that the Democratic senator and his wife Nadine Menendez had accepted the gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for using their influence to interfere with law enforcement probes of three New Jersey businessmen as well as aid the Egyptian government, Reuters reported.
His trial on corruption charges will begin in May.
The new indictment accuses the senator, until recently the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of taking actions on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials without registering with the US Department as a foreign agent.
According to ABC News, the indictment includes new photos of Menendez, his wife and New Jersey businessman Wael Hana dining with Egyptian officials that prosecutors said were part of a “corrupt agreement” to provide the senator and his wife with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for official acts taken to benefit the Egyptians.
Once Nadine Menendez informed her friend Hana that she was dating Menendez, prosecutors said the two “arranged a series of meetings and dinners” with Egyptian officials. In exchange for bribe payments, Menendez was meant to help lift a block on U.S. military aide to Egypt, the indictment says.
The new indictment also alleges Nadine Menendez set up an LLC to receive bribe payments, quoting a message from her saying “every time I’m in a middle person for a deal I am asking to get paid and this is my consulting company.”
Prosecutors have said that a co-defendant, Wael Hana, arranged meetings between the senator and Egyptian officials, who pressed him to sign off on military aid. In return, the businessman put Nadine Menendez on the payroll of a company he controlled, as per Reuters.
The senator has thus far resisted calls for his resignation and has pleaded not guilty to the prior charges against him as have his wife, Hana, and their co-defendants, businessmen Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.