New Jersey senator's wife pleads not guilty to foreign agent conspiracy charges

MANHATTAN (CN) — Nadine Menendez, the wife of New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, pleaded not guilty at her Wednesday afternoon arraignment on new counts claiming she and her husband accepted bribes and acted as unregistered foreign agents on behalf of Egypt.

Wearing a pink turtleneck with her bleached blonde hair pulled into a ponytail with a pink scrunchie, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, 58, pleaded “not guilty, Your Honor,” to a superseding indictment that added a count to an initial criminal indictment last month charging them, and three others, with counts of bribery and corruption.

The new criminal charge accuses all five co-defendants of conspiring to have Senator Menendez act as an illegal foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government while he was sitting a U.S. senator, and head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with access to sensitive intelligence.

The 44-page superseding indictment filed last week in the Southern District of New York accuses the senator of violating a law that bans members of Congress from doing the bidding of a foreign country. Prosecutors say Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt.”

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein scheduled trial to begin on May 6, 2024.

Senator Menendez pleaded not guilty to the initial indictment in September. The 69-year-old, who has filled a Senate seat since 2006, will be arraigned separately on the superseding indictment next week.

The Menendez’s co-defendants — New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes; a friend of Nadine Menendez, Wael Hana; and businessman Jose Uribe — each pleaded not guilty to the superseding indictment on Wednesday.

Each of the four co-defendants arraigned on Wednesday waived a public reading on the indictment.

Prosecutors say Hana, a friend of Nadine Menendez, served as a middleman who connected the senator to Egyptian officials. The indictment quotes from a text message chain the defendants are said to have used to get sensitive information from Senator Menendez to the Egyptian government.

“Tell Will [Hana] I am going to sign off this sale to Egypt today. Egypt: 46,000 120MM Target Practice Rounds and 10,000 Rounds Tank Ammunition: $99 Million,” Senator Menendez texted his wife, as cited in the indictment.

Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez then texted Wael Hana, who forwarded the information to Egyptian officials, who responded with a “thumbs up” emoji.

Attorneys for Hana asked Judge Stein to modify his bail package by removing his electronic ankle monitoring bracelet due to physical pain and discomfort, but the judge was not persuaded to consent to the request.

According to the terms of his bail package, Menendez surrendered his personal passport in September but retains his official passports. Any foreign travel must be limited to official business.

While he quickly stepped down from his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September, Menendez has repeatedly defied calls for his resignation, including from fellow New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

In light of the criminal charges, Menendez will not attend an all-senators classified briefing on Israel this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Tuesday.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Armenian parents, Nadine Arslanian Menendez met the New Jersey senator in 2019 at an IHOP restaurant in Union City. The two wed the following year.

According to prosecutors, a search of their Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022 uncovered more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, $70,000 in cash in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box, along with an additional $480,000 in cash, some of which was stuffed into jackets embroidered with Bob Menendez’s name.

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