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"Bitch Set Me Up"
Marion Barry, 18 January 1990

Robert Menendez

A press event was held by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on 22 September 2023 to announce the unsealing of an indictment charging Robert Menendez, US Senator from New Jersey, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, with bribery offenses in connection with their corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen. The case file stated that businessmen who allegedly gave bribes to the politician brought the senator together with representatives of the Egyptian Armed Forces and intelligence to establish corrupt interactions.

NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, began dating ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, in or about early February 2018. They became engaged in or about early October 2019, and married in or about early October 2020. Before NADINE MENENDEZ began dating MENENDEZ, she was unemployed. In or about early 2018, NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, informed WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, that she was dating ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant. In the following months and years, HANA and NADINE MENENDEZ worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to MENENDEZ for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement.

The head of the international committee of the US Senate, the author of the “mother of all sanctions” against Russia, Robert Menendez, was charged with corruption, the prosecutor’s office for the Southern District of New York reported. “During a court-authorized search of the house, agents found furnishings, <...> a luxury car, <...> as well as gold bars worth over one hundred thousand dollars,” the indictment noted.

Along with his wife, Nadine Menendez, a Democrat representing New Jersey, was accused of having “corrupt relationships with three businessmen” from his home state. The couple also found over $550,000 in cash hidden “in envelopes, clothes, closets and a safe.”

According to the prosecutor's office, the senator worked for Egypt in exchange for bribes. “Among other activities, Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps to covertly provide support to the Egyptian government,” the indictment said. The services concerned, in particular, military assistance and arms sales.

Menendez is widely known for his anti-Russian stance. In particular, last year, before the start of the Ukrainian conflict, he came up with a bill directed against Moscow, which he himself called “the mother of all sanctions.” Menendez had been serving as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since early 2021. He has been an active proponent of sanctions on Russia imposed by the US since the start of the Ukraine conflict, repeatedly arguing the measures were critical to “limit Russia’s ability to participate in the global economy, restrict critical exports, and… impose costs on Russian elites.”

Robert Menendez grew up the son of Cuban immigrants in a tenement building in Union City. Bob graduated from Union Hill High School in Union City, New Jersey in 1972 and credits his teacher Gail Harper for instilling in him the confidence to overcome his fear of public speaking. A product of New Jersey's public schools and a graduate of the state's universities, Bob learned early on the importance of standing up for what's right, no matter how powerful the opposition. Bob received his B.A. from St. Peter's College in Jersey City and his law degree from Rutgers University.

He first entered public service as a 19-year-old college student when his high school would not provide books to students who could not afford them. Bob launched a successful petition drive to reform the local school local school board and a year later won a seat on that very board. He stood up to corruption in Union City and went on to become its mayor, a state legislator and was elected to Congress in 1992. He quickly rose to leadership positions and has given New Jerseyans a seat at the table during critical negotiations on every issue since then: war and peace, jobs and the economy, education, health care, veterans issues, world affairs, transportation and housing.

MENENDEZ served as mayor of Union City, New Jersey, and a member of the New Jersey state legislature until 1993, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing a New Jersey district. MENENDEZ was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2006, subsequently elected in 2006, and reelected in 2012 and 2018.

As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has established himself as a new foreign policy leader for a new century, seeking to do globally what he has done in New Jersey – supporting the most vulnerable in our society and lending a voice to those least able to speak for themselves. As Chairman, he has focused the Committee’s work on key foreign policy issues of the day including strategic competition with China, confronting the global pandemic, and restoring the United States’ place as a leader around the globe. He has and stood by democracy activists struggling to reform governments from Cuba to China to Russia, and advocated for women and children struggling against oppressive poverty in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, he evoked a strong national security posture in the face of tyrannical leaders of Russia, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela.

The Senate Historical Office said Menendez appeared to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations. Menendez faces reelection next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington, and as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

The new indictment is the second corruption scandal for Menendez while in office. In 2015, the senator was indicted in New Jersey on bribery charges in a scheme between him and a wealthy eye doctor. The medic allegedly traded various ‘gifts’ worth nearly $1 million for political favors from the senator. The case ended in a mistrial in late 2017, when a jury failed to reach a verdict.

US Sen. Bob Menendez "sold his office for a lifestyle he couldn't afford" by accepting luxury trips from a wealthy doctor seeking political influence in return, a government prosecutor told jurors 06 September 2017 during opening statements of the Democrat's corruption trial. Menendez's attorney responded in his opening statement that gifts from Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, Menendez's longtime friend, didn't equate to a bribery agreement. Menendez's meetings with government officials — though they could have aided Melgen's business interests — were "what members of Congress do" and were meant to influence future policy, he said.

Menendez and Melgen were indicted in 2015 and faced multiple fraud and bribery charges in a case that could threaten Menendez's political career and potentially the makeup of a deeply divided U.S. Senate if he's convicted. Both men pleaded not guilty. Menendez said before entering the courthouse Wednesday: "Not once have I dishonored my public office."

Justice Department attorney Peter Koski described Menendez pressuring government officials to help Melgen with securing visas for his foreign girlfriends and intervening in a lucrative port security contract in the Dominican Republic and a multimillion-dollar Medicare dispute. Individually and through his company, Melgen also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Menendez's legal defense fund and entities that supported his re-election.

The federal bribery trial of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez ended in a mistrial 16 November 2017 when the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked on all charges against the New Jersey politician and a wealthy donor. Menendez's lawyers contended also that the government failed to establish a direct connection between Melgen's gifts and specific actions taken by the senator. Prosecutors said that didn't matter. Melgen, they said, essentially put Menendez on the payroll and made the politician his "personal senator," available as needed. Prosecutors decided not to retry him, months after his first trial ended with a deadlocked jury.

NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, began dating ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, in or about early February 2018.