Credit: (Tom Williams/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON — New Jersey’s senior U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez defended himself against federal charges of public corruption on Tuesday, saying he was innocent of the charges and has never acted as an agent for Egypt or Qatar.
In a defiant speech from the Senate floor, Menendez ran through a list of his actions critical to Egypt, including steps to delay military and economic funding for the country through Senate procedure, and said he has never received anything from the Qatari government.
“I have never violated the public trust,” Menendez said. “I am entirely innocent of the charges.”
Menendez’s speech Tuesday marked the first time he has spoken publicly about the accusations that he aided Qatar, a tiny Middle East nation home to an airbase critical for the American and British militaries.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine, of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen and arranging meetings between the businessmen and Egyptian government officials. Menendez is also accused of intervening to weaken the prosecution of one of the businessmen, Fred Daibes, and to facilitate an investment deal between Daibes and Qatari investors.
This scheme of the Menendezes providing political favors in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of payments spanned roughly 2018 through 2023, according to prosecutors. Following the indictment, Menendez stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
What Menendez said
In addressing Senate colleagues, many who have called on him to resign, Menendez said he has in recent years placed holds on $1.58 billion in aid to Egypt for M1A1 Abrams tanks and a separate hold on $125 million in economic funding for the county, which has been under military rule, overseen by former military officer Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, since 2013.
Menendez said he criticized al-Sisi in front of members of Congress and State Department staff, including at a security summit in 2019 in Munich. There, Menendez said, he criticized al-Sisi over Egypt’s desire to buy a Russian missile system.
The senator pointed also to remarks he gave in 2020 against Egypt’s oppression of dissidents, including a human rights lawyer and a journalist.
“Does any of this sound like I was on the take with Egypt?” Menendez said. “You can’t challenge the leader of an authoritarian state in public, and among other members of Congress, and take actions adverse to their interests and at the same time serve as an agent of that same foreign government.”
Menendez’s term expires at the end of this Congress, in January 2025. He has not said if he’s running for reelection. Democrats Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, and Rep. Andy Kim (D-3rd) are running to replace Menendez, who has been a senator since 2006.
