Menendez pleads not guilty to new obstruction of justice, bribery charges

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and his wife on Monday pleaded not guilty to a dozen new charges accusing them of obstruction of justice while being investigated over allegations they accepted bribes. 

“Once again, not guilty your honor,” Menendez said after Judge Sidney H. Stein asked him to enter a plea, according to The Associated Press.

Menendez and his wife were newly accused of conspiring to cover up alleged bribery schemes with three New Jersey businessmen as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York investigated the criminal case. 

It came on top of charges the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair agreed to and accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes to enrich the businessmen and the government of Egypt, acted as an agent of the Egyptian government and accepted gifts from the Qatari government.

Menendez now faces 16 counts and his wife, Nadine, faces 15 counts. The slew of new charges followed the recent guilty plea of their co-defendant, businessman Jose Uribe. 

Last week, Uribe admitted to attempting to bribe the Menendez couple with a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for the powerful senator’s political sway. Under his deal, the businessman must “testify truthfully” if called upon at any future proceedings — including Menendez’s trial, which is scheduled to begin May 6.

After flipping Uribe, prosecutors alleged Menendez falsely characterized his knowledge of the convertible payment and a more than $23,000 payment another businessman, Wael Hana, made toward Nadine Menendez’s mortgage. 

Prosecutors also alleged the New Jersey Democrat urged his counsel to tell the government at first that he did not know about the payments until 2022, and later, that in 2022 he learned the funds were loans. 

“In truth and in fact, and as Menendez well knew, Menendez had learned of both the mortgage company payment and the car payments prior to 2022, and they were not loans, but bribe payments,” prosecutors wrote in the updated indictment.  

Nadine Menendez was similarly accused of telling her lawyers to inform prosecutors the payments from Uribe and Hana were loans. The latest indictment exposed a previously unknown meeting between the senator’s wife and Uribe, where they agreed to describe the convertible payment as a loan if law enforcement asked. 

After his first indictment in September, Menendez stepped down from his position as chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in line with Democratic Conference rules. 

He previously told The Hill in a statement through his lawyers the latest indictment is a “flagrant abuse of power” and maintained his innocence.