Menendez takes to Senate floor to defend himself against corruption charges

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey spoke from the Senate chamber floor Tuesday to reiterate that he is innocent of the federal corruption charges filed against him in the Southern District of New York.

He said that the timing of the indictment, originally filed in September, and then updated in October and last week, is part of a plan by the government to keep the “sensational story in the press. It poisons the jury pool and it seeks to convict me in the court of public opinion,” which he said harms not just himself, but his Senate colleagues, the political establishment and the people of New Jersey.

Menendez said that the prosecutor’s office is engaged “not in a prosecution but a persecution” and that it wants a “victory, not justice.”

Story continues below photo gallery

“It is an unfortunate reality, but prosecutors shoot first before even they know all the facts,” Menendez said.

Says he didn't receive payment to aid Qatar

The state’s senior senator addressed the allegations directly by saying that he has received nothing from the government of Qatar or on behalf of the government of Qatar to “promote their image or their issues.”

More: The Qatar-NJ link: Developer Daibes had Menendez multitasking for gold bars, feds say

He said that a resolution related to Qatar mentioned in the indictment was sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham and cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 11 other members and that the press release mentioned in the indictment thanked the Qatari government for assisting U.S. military in evacuating people from Afghanistan.

“How nefarious is that?” Menendez asked.

What the indictment alleges

He did not mention his co-defendant, notable North Jersey developer Fred Daibes, by name. The most recent version of the indictment alleges that Menendez received payments including cash and gold bars from Daibes in return for promoting a Daibes property to Qatari investors with ties to that country’s government.

The indictment also alleges that a relative of co-defendant Nadine Arslanian Menendez, the senator's wife, received tickets from a Qatari official to a Formula One race in Miami. Menendez said Tuesday that the family member already had their own purchased tickets.

“The suggestion that the introduction of a constituent to a Qatari investment company is illegal, is not only wrong as a matter of law, it is dangerous to the important work senators do,” Menendez said. “Under the government’s theory it may be a crime for members of the senate to make introductions to companies' constituents in their own state, to foster investments in their state, to create jobs and ratables and revenues and help grow their economy.”

More: This cast of characters has been linked to the Sen. Menendez investigation

Menendez also addressed the allegations that he worked as a foreign agent for Egypt. He said that it was an “unprecedented accusation and it has never ever been levied against a sitting member of Congress.”

“It opens a dangerous door for the Justice Department to take the normal engagement of members of Congress with a foreign government and to transform those engagements into being a foreign agent,” he said.

The senator reiterated his record of being “steadfast on the side of human rights defenders in Egypt and everywhere else in the world” and noted that his record on holding Egypt accountable is clear.

About the cash and gold bars

And when it comes to the now infamous cash and gold bars the senator allegedly received as payment, Menendez said that there is no evidence of giving or receiving of cash and gold bars and that there will be an explanation at trial.

Menendez said that the problem is “almost everyone” has “taken the government’s sensational narrative of what the accusations are as truth.”

More: Sen. Menendez's alleged actions for Egypt a potential national security threat, experts say

“I’m innocent and I intend to prove my innocence, not just for me but for the precedent this case will set for you and future members of the Senate,” Menendez said. “Members of the Senate are not above the law but they are not beneath it either.”

Menendez said that he is “suffering gravely” as a result of what the prosecutors have done and that he will “not step aside in name of political expediency.”

The Daibes-Qatar link

Menendez allegedly accepted payments from Daibes in exchange for using his power and influence to help Daibes with a business deal in Qatar.

The updated indictment alleges that the now-infamous gold bars investigators said they found in Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home were payment for helping Daibes get a Qatari investment company with ties to that country’s government to invest in a Daibes property by doing things that were viewed as favorable to the government of Qatar.

In June 2021, Menendez allegedly introduced Daibes to an investor who was a member of the Qatari royal family and the principal of the firm, who then negotiated a multimillion-dollar investment in one of Daibes' New Jersey real estate properties.

According to the federal indictment, Menendez allegedly made public statements supporting Qatar and after attending a private event hosted by the Qatari government, Daibes sent Menendez a picture of a luxury watch website with models priced up to $23,990 and asked, “How about one of these,” before messaging the senator again two days later about a Senate resolution in support of Qatar.

Menendez would give statements to Daibes so he could share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official associated with the investment firm, the indictment says.

The earlier charges related to Egypt, Daibes, Uribe

Menendez was first indicted in this case last fall and faces corruption charges, brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Daibes and two other businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of legal trouble.

The senior senator and the other four defendants — his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and businessmen Wael Hana, Daibes and Jose Uribe — have all entered not guilty pleas.

The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez and his wife “engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe and Daibes” to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his “power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt” even as he sat as chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Bribes allegedly included cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz — much of which is detailed in photographs in the 50-page indictment.

Menendez is up for reelection this fall, and to secure his spot on the ballot, he will need to win the primary on June 4, likely around the time of closing arguments in the case if the trial date stands.

Rep. Andy Kim and first lady Tammy Murphy have announced that they will run in the Democratic primary for the seat.

In December, Menendez's attorneys requested that his trial be delayed by two months — from May 6 until July, after the primary election in which his Senate seat will be on the ballot — because of the amount of discovery submitted by the government, but the request was denied.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Menendez defends himself on Senate floor against corruption charges