Menendez and his wife Nadine were indicted on federal bribery charges on Friday. He was found with $500,000 in cash, gold bars, and cash stuffed in his pockets. His driver Fred Daibes, is a co-defendant., along with the two businessmen who bribed him and his wife.
Menendez is a stereotype of a corrupt politician – if all this is true.
Menendez, 69, and his wife face one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The three New Jersey associates, identified as Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes, are also named as co-defendants and face two counts. Menendez and his co-defendants are expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
Jose Uribe and Wael Hana — bought the Mercedes-Benz for Menendez’s wife in return for the Senator interfering in a state criminal prosecution of a Uribe associate charged with insurance fraud and an investigation of a family member who worked for him.
Menendez stepped down from the foreign relations committee, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wants him to leave the Senate.
The Feds found gold bars worth over $100,000. A new Mercedes-Benz convertible in the garage. Wads of cash stuffed in the pockets of a jacket with “Bob Menendez” embroidered on the breast.
Too showy!
- Nearly half a million dollars in cash was found stuffed inside envelopes and stashed inside the pockets of clothing hanging in the closets of the Menendez’s home in Englewood Cliffs, including a big roll of bills in a jacket from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus with Menendez’s name on it.
- Fingerprints belonging to the driver of co-defendant Fred Daibes were found on at least one of the envelopes, as well as his DNA and his return address, prosecutors said.”Thank you,” Nadine Menendez texted Daibes around Jan. 24, 2022, according to the indictment. “Christmas in January.”
- Menendez also helped Hana secure military funding for Egypt in exchange for the promise of a no-show job for his wife, prosecutors said.
Nadine thought it was all a “dream come true.”
CBS NEWS REPORTS
Prosecutors allege the “corrupt relationship” between Menendez and three businessmen began around 2018, when Hana and Nadine Menendez “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to” the senator with the goal of establishing a “corrupt agreement.” The deal called for Hana, with help from Daibes and Uribe, to provide bribes to the Menendezes in exchange for the senator using his posture to benefit the Egyptian government, Hana and others.
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Menendez’s position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave him oversight of U.S. military aid to foreign countries, including Egypt. As chairman, he could place so-called “holds” on foreign military financing and military sales, which the State Department typically honored.
The indictment notes that Menendez, as chairman of the panel, “possessed substantial influence over foreign military sales and foreign military financing to Egypt.”
You can read more details on NBC News, and from what the indictment says, it looks like they have Mr. and Mrs. Menendez dead to rights.
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