U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his spouse have been charged with conspiring to have him act as an agent of Egypt and Egyptian officers, in accordance with a rewritten indictment of federal prosecutors in New York City.
The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires folks to register with the U.S. authorities if they’re appearing as “an agent of a foreign principal.”
As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from being an agent of a overseas authorities, even when he did register as one.
The indictment says the conspiracy occurred from January 2018 to June 2022.
The new cost comes simply weeks after the Democrat and his spouse had been accused of accepting bribes of money, gold bars and a luxurious automobile from three New Jersey businessmen who needed the senator to assist and affect over overseas affairs. The couple have pleaded not responsible.
The indictments mentioned that whereas Menendez was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he took a number of steps to secretly assist Egyptian officers. That included ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to elevate a maintain on $300 million in assist to Egypt.
He was additionally accused of passing alongside details about staff on the U.S. Embassy in Egypt and transmitting nonpublic info to Egyptian officers about navy assist.
Menendez, 69, has insisted that he did nothing uncommon to help Egypt and that prosecutors had misunderstood the work of a senator concerned in overseas affairs.
Authorities who searched Menendez’s residence final yr mentioned they discovered greater than $100,000 price of gold bars and over $480,000 in money – a lot of it hidden in closets, clothes and a protected.
Source: www.dailysabah.com