Bob Menendez Pleads Not Guilty To Acting As Foreign Agent For Egyptian Government
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KATELYNN RICHARDSON
CONTRIBUTOR
October 23, 2023
Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty Monday to the charge of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government.
A Manhattan grand jury filed a superseding indictment Oct. 12 charging Menendez, who was initially charged with three counts stemming from his alleged acceptance of bribes in September, with one count of conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent. The indictment alleges Menendez agreed to take actions benefiting Egyptian military and intelligence officials in exchange for bribes between January 2018 and June 2022.
Around the time he and his wife, Nadine Menendez, started dating in 2018, she began holding “meetings and direct communications with multiple Egyptian officials, at least some of whom she understood were intelligence officials, and received requests from them, and conveyed information and requests from them to Menendez,” according to the indictment. (RELATED: John Fetterman Calls On Senate To Expel Bob Menendez)
Menendez pleaded not guilty to his three other federal charges in September, along with his four co-defendants, his wife and New Jersey businessmen Jose Uribe, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana. He stepped down from his position as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair the day he was indicted.
Menendez denied the foreign agent charge after it was released. He claimed it “flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President (Fattah) El-Sisi on these issues,” according to The Associated Press.
