US Sen. Bob Menendez pleads not responsible to pocketing bribes in a wide-ranging corruption case

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ Related Press

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey pleaded not responsible on Wednesday to federal fees accusing him of pocketing bribes of money and gold bars in change for wielding his political affect to secretly advance Egyptian pursuits and do favors for native businessmen.

Menendez led his spouse, Nadine, who additionally pleaded not responsible within the case, by the hand out of the courtroom after the temporary listening to within the decrease Manhattan federal courthouse days after prosecutors unsealed an indictment alleging huge corruption by the Democrat. The couple ignored shouted questions from reporters as they left the courthouse. Menendez gave a tight-lipped smile as he stepped right into a automotive.

A defiant Menendez has mentioned allegations that he abused his energy to line his pockets are baseless. He has mentioned he’s assured he might be exonerated and has no intention of leaving the Senate.

Nonetheless, requires Menendez to resign continued to mount on Wednesday with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, saying “he ought to step down.” Greater than half of Senate Democrats have now mentioned that Menendez ought to resign, together with fellow New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, talking to reporters hours after Menendez’s courtroom look, didn’t name for Menendez to resign and mentioned Menendez would deal with his Democratic colleagues on Thursday. “Everyone knows that senators — for senators, there’s a a lot a lot larger normal. And clearly, whenever you learn the indictment, Sen. Menendez fell means, means under that normal,” mentioned Schumer, D-N.Y.

Menendez spoke in courtroom solely when every defendant stood to acknowledge that they understood the costs in opposition to them. A lawyer entered the not responsible plea for Menendez, who was compelled to step down as chairman of the highly effective Senate International Relations Committee after being indicted.

The senator was launched on a $100,000 bond, and he should give up any private passports however might be allowed to maintain an official passport that will enable him to journey exterior the U.S. for presidency enterprise. The decide ordered him to not have contact exterior of the presence of attorneys along with his co-defendants aside from his spouse.

He additionally can not discuss in regards to the case, exterior of the presence of attorneys, with members of his Senate workers, International Relations Committee workers or political advisers who’ve private data in regards to the allegations. It was not instantly clear how these restrictions would have an effect on his work.

It’s the second corruption case in a decade in opposition to Menendez, whose final trial involving completely different allegations ended with jurors failing to achieve a verdict in 2017.

Authorities say they discovered almost $500,000 in money, a lot of it hidden in clothes and closets, in addition to greater than $100,000 in gold bars in a search of the New Jersey residence Menendez, 69, shares along with his spouse.

Menendez’s spouse was launched on $250,000 bond secured by her residence in her Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prosecutors say she performed a key position in amassing tons of of hundreds of {dollars} price of bribes from three New Jersey businessmen searching for assist from the longtime lawmaker.

Prosecutors allege repeated actions by Menendez to learn the authoritarian authorities of Egypt. They are saying Menendez additionally tried to intrude in legal investigations involving associates, in a single case pushing to put in in New Jersey a federal prosecutor who he believed he might affect to derail a case.

Two of the businessmen, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, additionally pleaded not responsible and had been freed pending trial. They didn’t communicate to reporters as they left the courthouse and their attorneys additionally declined to remark.

The third, Wael Hana, pleaded not responsible Tuesday to fees together with conspiracy to commit bribery. Hana was arrested at Kennedy Airport on Tuesday after returning voluntarily from Egypt to face the costs, and was freed pending trial.

Menendez, in his first public remarks after final week’s indictment, mentioned on Monday that the money present in his residence was drawn from his private financial savings accounts through the years and that he saved it available for emergencies.

One of many envelopes full of money discovered at his residence, nevertheless, bore Daibes’ DNA and was marked with the actual property developer’s return deal with, in response to prosecutors.

Prosecutors mentioned Hana promised to place Menendez’s spouse on his firm’s payroll in a low- or no-show job in change for Menendez utilizing his influential put up to facilitate international army gross sales and financing to Egypt. Prosecutors allege Hana additionally paid $23,000 towards her residence mortgage, wrote $30,000 checks to her consulting firm, promised her envelopes of money, despatched her train gear and acquired a few of the gold bars that had been discovered within the couple’s residence.

The indictment alleges repeated actions by Menendez to learn Egypt, regardless of U.S. authorities misgivings over the nation’s human rights report that lately have prompted Congress to connect restrictions on assist.

Prosecutors, who detailed conferences and dinners between Menendez and Egyptian officers, say Menendez gave delicate U.S. authorities data to Egyptian officers and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to raise a maintain on $300 million in assist to Egypt, one of many high recipients of U.S. army assist.

Prosecutors have accused Menendez of pressuring a U.S. agricultural official to cease opposing a profitable deal that gave Hana’s firm a monopoly over certifying that imported meat met non secular requirements.