Sen. Bob Menendez makes announcement on political future, insists he’ll be exonerated on federal indictment

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., insisted at a press conference Monday he will be exonerated on a new federal corruption indictment.

Menedez detailed his decades-long record in Congress and insisted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash the FBI found at his home was withdrawn from his personal savings account. 

“The allegations leveled against me are just that, allegations,” Menendez said. “For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 years of public service, they know I have always fought for what is right. My advocacy has always been grounded. And what I learned from growing up as the son of Cuban refugees, especially my mom, my hero, Evangelina Menendez. Everything I accomplished, I worked for despite the nay sayers and everyone who has underestimated me.” 

“I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator,” he added, falling short of formally announcing a re-election bid. “The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. We cannot set aside the presumption of innocence for political expediency when the harm is irrevocable.”

In what experts tell Fox News is a risk for his own defense in court, Menendez also stood by his political record on Egypt. 

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“One fact is indisputable, throughout my time in Congress, I have remained steadfast on the side of civil society and human rights defenders in Egypt, and everywhere else in the world,” Menendez said. “If you look at my actions related to Egypt during the period described in this indictment, and throughout my whole career, my record is clear and consistent in holding Egypt accountable for its unjust detention of American citizens and others, its human rights abuses, its deepening relationship with Russia, and efforts that have eroded the independence of the nation’s judiciary among a myriad of concerns.” 

The press conference at Hudson County Community College in Union City, New Jersey, marks the senator’s first public appearance since his federal indictment was unsealed in the Southern District of New York on Friday charging Menendez, his wife, Nadine, and New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes in participating in a years-long bribery scheme. 

Since 2018, as alleged by federal prosecutors, the three businessmen collectively paid hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including cash, gold, a Mercedes Benz, and other things of value in exchange for Menendez agreeing to use his power and influence to protect and enrich them and to benefit the government of Egypt. 

The indictment accuses Menendez of improperly pressuring an official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to seek to protect a business monopoly granted to Hana by Egypt. The senator is also accused of taking actions seeking to disrupt a criminal investigation undertaken by the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General related to Uribe and his associates.  

Federal prosecutors say Menendez recommended that President Biden nominate a U.S. Attorney who the senator believed he could influence with respect to Daibes and sought to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution undertaken by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey of Daibes. 

In June 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at Menendez and his wife’s New Jersey home where federal agents many of the fruits of the bribery scheme, including cash, gold, the luxury convertible, and home furnishings. Prosecutors say $480,000 in cash, much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe, was discovered in the home, as well as over $70,000 in cash in Nadine’s safe deposit box. Some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints and/or DNA of Daibes or his driver, according to the indictment. 

Other of the envelopes were found inside jackets bearing Menendez name and hanging in his closet. 

Prosecutors released photos showing bars of the Egyptian gold, stacks of cash and the Mercedes-Benz convertible found at the house. 

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Menendez has since hired attorney Abbe Lowell, CNBC reported. Lowell is also defending Hunter Biden against gun charges amid the Justice Department’s years-long tax evasion probe. 

The senator has rejected calls for his resignation bellowed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and other Democrat members of Congress. 

He did, however, step down from his role as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

In a statement Friday, Menendez denied the allegations and condemned “how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat.” 

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“I am not going anywhere,” he said, vowing to “continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades.”

Menendez faced a previous federal corruption indictment in 2015, but those charges ended in a mistrial in 2017. In 2018, the Senate Ethics Committee said he broke federal law and rules of the upper chamber in accepting unreported gifts from a friend and political ally. He still won reelection later that year.