More Menendez Mayhem: Mountains of Malfeasance

A new superseding indictment filed against New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez on Tuesday has expanded the scope of corruption allegations already facing the embattled lawmaker.

The new charges raise the stakes, alleging Menendez’s involvement in a scheme that extended beyond bribery and into lucrative business deals worth millions, fueled by luxury gifts like expensive wristwatches.

The Justice Department unsealed a bribery and conspiracy indictment against Menendez and his wife, Nadine, on September 22. Federal prosecutors in New York filed new charges Thursday, October 12, 2023, accusing the New Jersey Democrat of violating a prohibition on members of Congress from acting as an agent of a foreign principal.

The latest indictment also filed in the Southern District of New York, builds upon the original charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud brought against Menendez last year.

This is the first time a sitting member of Congress has been charged with conspiring to act as a foreign agent. Menendez, until recently, was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

It alleges that the senator, then chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accepted bribes from New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes in exchange for using his influence to benefit Daibes and other businessmen, specifically by pushing for a multi-million dollar investment from a company tied to the Qatari government.

But the new indictment introduces fresh claims, accusing Menendez of accepting gifts beyond cash payments. It alleges that Daibes offered the senator luxury wristwatches valued between $10,000 and $24,000 – a tangible symbol of the alleged quid pro quo arrangement. Text messages cited in the indictment reportedly show Daibes texting photos of the watches to Menendez and saying, “How about one of these?”

Furthermore, the new charges extend the timeline of the alleged scheme, claiming it continued into 2023, a year longer than initially believed. This raises concerns about the potential breadth and depth of the alleged corruption.

There are growing calls for the senator to step down, but Menendez refuses to do so. Earlier this month, a tentative trial date was scheduled for May 6, which would come just one month before New Jersey’s June primary, meaning it could still be underway when voters start casting ballots on whether to return Menendez to the Senate.

Menendez, who has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all charges, remains in office while the legal proceedings unfold. His lawyers have called the new allegations “outrageous” and vowed to fight them aggressively.

The development comes at a crucial time for Menendez, who is facing re-election in 2024. The superseding indictment throws a curveball into his campaign, potentially alienating voters and creating significant political challenges.

“This is a major blow to Menendez’s re-election bid,” said progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick, whose grassroots campaign took four of ten votes away from the incumbent senator in 2018. “The new charges, especially the claims about doing favors for Qatar and Egypt in exchange for bribes of cash, watches, gold bars, and a luxury car add a layer of sleaze to the existing allegations.”

McCormick noted that Menendez’s previous crimes should have resonated negatively with voters but Gov. Phil Murphy, First Lady Tammy Murphy,  Rep. Andy Kim, Sen. Cory Booker, and virtually the entire Democratic political establishment stuck with the criminal when she was running for his United States Senate seat in the 2018 primary election.

“Democracy is only as good as the users, which is just another way of reiterating that American voters must rise to the responsibility of citizenship,” said McCormick. “We should not allow the power brokers who backed Menendez to be the ones who choose his replacement.”

The case against Menendez has become a high-profile political and legal saga, closely watched on both sides of the aisle. The latest developments only raise the stakes and intensify the scrutiny both from the court and the public. Whether Menendez can weather this storm and salvage his political career remains to be seen, but the road ahead seems considerably steeper after Tuesday’s superseding indictment.