Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., pleaded not guilty Monday to a new charge alleging he accepted bribes from the Egyptian government and conspired to act as a foreign agent while serving as a member of Congress.
Wearing a pinstripe suit with a red tie, Menendez sat between his lawyers for the brief hearing, which lasted less than five minutes.
“We are innocent. We are going to prove it,” Menendez said in Spanish as he left the federal courthouse in New York City.
In a statement after his arraignment, Menendez continued to deny any wrongdoing, saying, "Anyone who knows my record, knows this latest charge is as outrageous as it is absurd."
Vowing that he would be found innocent when all the facts are presented, he said: "I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country — the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom.
"The government is engaged in primitive hunting, by which the predator chases its prey until it’s exhausted and then kills it. This tactic won’t work," he added.
Menendez’s co-defendants, including his wife, Nadine Menendez, and businessman Wael Hana, were also included in the new charges. They pleaded not guilty last week.
Menendez had been excused from last week's court proceeding because of Senate business.
Menendez allegedly “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt,” said a superseding indictment filed this month by a federal grand jury in Manhattan. He denied wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutors also alleged in the indictment that Menendez's wife and Hana “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to Menendez for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement.”
The new charge alleges that from 2018 to 2022, Hana, Menendez and his wife “conspired, confederated and agreed together and with each other to have a public official” — Menendez — “act as an agent of a foreign principal, to wit, the Government of Egypt and Egyptian officials.”
Menendez and his wife pleaded not guilty last month to corruption charges that accused them of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in return for the use of the senator’s influence to enrich three New Jersey businessmen and benefit the Egyptian government.
Menendez stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee shortly after he was indicted last month. During his tenure as the chair of the panel, he helped oversee billions of dollars in U.S. aid for Egypt.
In a statement this month, Menendez said he will “show my innocence” at trial. Through her attorney, Menendez’s wife said she denies all allegations in the indictment. Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said the allegations against his client are false.
In addition to the federal corruption case, the FBI is investigating whether Egypt’s intelligence services might have been involved in the alleged bribery scheme described in the indictment last month, sources familiar with the matter said.
Menendez has rejected demands for his resignation from dozens of his Democratic colleagues after he was indicted on bribery charges last month.
It is the second federal indictment Menendez has faced since he became a senator in 2006. He was charged in 2015 with illegally accepting favors from a Florida eye doctor, which he also denied. The case ended in a mistrial after jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors decided against a retrial.
Menendez appears to be the first U.S. senator to face indictments on two unrelated criminal allegations, according to the Senate Historical Office data.
