Sen. Bob Menendez Found Guilty On All Counts In Bribery Trial, First Senator Ever Convicted Of Acting As A Foreign Agent

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) was found guilty on all 16 counts, including wire fraud, bribery and extortion, at his trial in Manhattan.

Menendez faced calls to resign immediately by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D).

Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said the New Jersey senator placed “his power up for sale” in his closing argument. 

An indictment disclosed in federal court stated that Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, had been charged with violating corruption and bribery laws. They allegedly engaged in a scheme in 2018 to assist the Egyptian government. 

The indictment said that the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, paid in cash, gold bars, home mortgage payments, luxury vehicles and other valuable items.

While searching Menendez’s home in June 2022, federal agents disclosed that they found hidden cash and gold bars. Investigators also discovered over $480,000 in cash hidden in envelopes and clothing. In addition, $70,000 was found in Nadine’s safe deposit box. An examination of the senator’s search history showed he was researching information on the “kilo of gold price.”

After the indictment, he rejected all of the claims made against him, accusing federal prosecutors of trying to dig his “political grave.” 

At the end of Menendez’s bribery trial on Monday in Manhattan federal court, Monteleoni declared that he sold his power to benefit three New Jersey businessmen who bribed him with gold, cash and a luxury car.

“It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington,” the assistant U.S. attorney said in his closing argument in Manhattan federal court. “He also wanted to pile up riches for himself and his wife.”

Menendez ghostwrote a letter for Egyptian officials to reply to concerns a fellow senator raised about the country’s human rights record and pressed a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to cease scrutinizing a deal that prosecutors say Egypt’s government allowed businessman Wael Hana’s company to certify halal meat.

“When Menendez hears Nadine is going to get paid, he springs into action again and again,” the prosecutor said. “He sold all of that trust and all of that power for the benefit of Hana and of Egypt for money and for gold.”

On June 7, the New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe stated that he used up to $250,000 to ensure the attorney general’s office would not investigate Menendez.

He asserted that he was friends with Hana, who, in 2018, told him that his insurance business and a friend’s trucking business had been at risk of criminal investigation unless he offered $200,000 to $250,000.

In a letter revealed on May 1, Menendez’s attorneys declared that he stashed gold bars and cash as “intergenerational trauma stemming from his family’s experience as refugees, who had their funds confiscated by the Cuban government and were left with only a small amount of cash that they had stashed away in their home.”