Sen. Bob Menendez charged with obstructing justice in fresh bribery indictment

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was charged Tuesday with obstructing justice in a new indictment that builds on earlier criminal allegations that he accepted bribes in exchange for improperly helping the Egyptian and Qatari governments.

The new charges, which target Menendez and his wife, Nadine, allege the pair conspired to and actually obstructed justice in the New York federal investigation. Prosecutors say the pair wrote checks and letters from about June 2022 to 2023 that falsely characterized the return of bribes to co-defendants as loan repayments, and caused their legal counsel to make statements about the bribe money that the pair knew were false.

The charges add to the pair's legal woes. Prosecutors have already accused the senator and his wife, who was his girlfriend during part of the time covered by the indictment, of agreeing to help Egypt's government with weapons sales and financing in exchange for a middleman's help getting Nadine a low- or no-show job. The middleman later sweetened the deal with cash and gold, according to the allegations.

Prosecutors say Menendez shared non-public information on personnel at the U.S. embassy in Cairo with Nadine, who then allegedly got the information to an Egyptian official through a middleman. Menendez also secretly helped to draft a letter for Egypt's government aimed at convincing other senators to release hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, and instructed Nadine to tell the middleman he planned to sign off on a $99 million arms deal with Egypt, according to the indictment.

In January, prosecutors added to the Egypt-related allegations with new allegations that the senator took money and gold with the understanding that he was expected to do things that would help the Qatari government as well as a co-defendant who was seeking an investment from a fund tied to that government.

Menendez's attorney provided the following statement to USA TODAY:

"Today’s superseding indictment is a flagrant abuse of power. The government has long known that I learned of and helped repay loans  -- not bribes --  that had been provided to my wife.

"Not content -- or capable -- of meeting those facts fairly at trial, the government has now falsely alleged a cover-up and obstruction.... It says, once and for all, that they will stop at nothing in their zeal to get me... I am innocent and will prove it no matter how many charges they continue to pile on.”

In a previous statement to USA TODAY, the senator said he had a long record of challenging Egyptian leaders on issues such as human rights and has only ever been loyal to the United States.

“The government’s latest charge is as outrageous as it is absurd,” Menendez said. “I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country − the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom.”

Walls closing in? Co-defendant agrees to cooperate

On Friday, a separate co-defendant, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts in a charging document that said he made payments toward Nadine's Mercedes-Benz Convertible in exchange for the couple's agreement to use the senator's authority to favorably resolve a separate criminal prosecution of an Uribe associate. Among other offenses, Uribe admitted to obstructing justice by causing his then-legal counsel to falsely state the payments were loans.

The plea agreement could be further bad news for the Menendezes.

Uribe, who faces a maximum sentence of 95 years in prison, has agreed to testify if called upon by prosecutors. His sentencing will be up to the Manhattan federal district court, but prosecutors agreed to inform the court about the nature and extent of his cooperation.

Lawyers for Uribe and Nadine Menendez declined to comment.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sen. Bob Menendez charged with obstructing justice on top of bribery