United States Sen. Bob Menendez pleads not guilty to foreign agent charges that accuse him of conspiring to act on behalf of the Egyptian government.
On Oct. 12, federal prosecutors accused the New Jersey Democrat of taking actions from 2018 to 2022 in support of Egyptian military and intelligence officials. The lawmaker entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan.
Senator Pleads Not Guilty to Foreign Agent Charge
In a statement at the time, the senator said that piling new charges upon new charges does not make the allegations against him any more true. Menendez and his wife, Nadine, were previously charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and gold bars from three New Jersey businessmen.
The money was allegedly in exchange for using the lawmaker's influence to benefit Egypt's government and interfere with law enforcement investigations into the businessmen. All defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 27. Nadine and one of the businessmen, Wael Hana, pleaded not guilty to the foreign agent charge on Oct. 18, as per Reuters.
Individuals must register with the Department of Justice if they act as "an agent of a foreign principle" as required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutors in the case argued that Hana arranged meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials.
They believe that the latter pressed the lawmaker to sign off on military aid and in return, the businessman put his wife on the payroll of a company under his control. The new indictment in the case argued that both Hana and Nadine communicated requests and directives from Egyptian officials to the senator.
Amid the controversy, Menendez's Democratic colleagues urged him to resign from his position, to which he refused. After the lawmaker's arraignment, he released a statement through his office that dismissed the charge against him as "outrageous as it is absurd."
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Loyal to Only One Country
Menendez said that throughout his life, he had been loyal to only one country, the United States, the land his family chose to live in democracy and freedom. According to CNN, he argued that he would not prosecute the case through the press and repeatedly claimed that he had done nothing wrong.
The latest charge that accuses Menendez and his wife of conspiring to act as foreign agents was unveiled early this month in a superseding indictment. It adds a new dimension to the case against the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman by alleging that a U.S. senator was working on behalf of another country.
Judge Sidney H. Stein said that the plea Menendez entered was the sole purpose of the latest hearing and decided to adjourn the proceeding after less than five minutes. A few minutes later, the lawmaker left the courthouse without speaking to reporters waiting outside.
The New Jersey Democrat then released a statement, repeating his claim that the new charge against him "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," said the Associated Press.
