Posted on 07/16/24
| News Source: The Hill
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D) on Tuesday was found guilty of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and a slew of other charges in his federal corruption case.
The embattled Democrat and ex-chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee was convicted on all 16 counts he faced, from accepting luxurious bribes in exchange for his political clout to acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. The jury had been deliberating since Friday afternoon.
Two New Jersey businessmen tried alongside Menendez were also convicted on all counts.
Menendez now stares down decades while mounting an independent reelection bid for a fourth term in the upper chamber.
Federal prosecutors accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine, last year of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form cash, gold bars and lavish gifts from the two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, and a third businessman who pleaded guilty before the trial began. The businessmen benefited from Menendez’s sway in exchange, they said.
In several superseding indictments, the senator was accused of conspiring to act as a foreign agent of Egypt, accepting gifts from the Qatari government and conspiring to cover up the bribery scheme as prosecutors worked the case.
Over several weeks, the government presented testimony that more than $486,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars were found in the Menendez’s home by the FBI and showed evidence that Nadine Menendez frequently served as a go-between for her husband and the businessmen.