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

The corruption scandal of Sen. Bob Menendez may lack the action of a James Bond movie, but the bribery scheme detailed in his recent indictment plays out against a similar — and dangerous — backdrop: the world of espionage.

Some national security and counterintelligence experts say Menendez appears to have been caught up in an Egyptian intelligence operation that has the hallmarks of spy recruitment, with his secret actions to benefit the foreign government ensnaring the powerful senior senator in a web of compromise.

“It’s extraordinary. It sounds like it's a bad movie, but it's actually an incredible intelligence operation the Egyptians ran and seemingly recruited a powerful person,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA operations officer. “It’s not just public corruption. There's certainly a national security espionage angle here.”

Menendez’s actions — which allegedly included passing on “highly sensitive” nonpublic information about staff at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and ghostwriting a letter to his fellow senators from Egyptian officials to convince them to release “a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt" — are not only a potential threat to national security but raise questions about what else he may have done, some former members of the CIA and FBI said. 

'This is what traitors do'

“All these things the government is alleging he is doing are very dangerous stuff. This is spying stuff. This is what traitors do,” said Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory special agent who has investigated high profile and complex terrorism cases, including 9/11 and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

“If what the government is alleging is true, I’m sure he did a lot of damage,” Soufan said. “The foreign counterintelligence operation will continue for a long time to actually limit and deal with the damages that he already created."

Soufan noted the full extent of the senator’s alleged actions have likely not yet been revealed. “If somebody is ghosting a letter for the Egyptian government,” he said, “you think that he's not going to give them intelligence about what he knows?”

Menendez was indicted last month with his wife and three businessmen for allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes — including cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible — in exchange for using his “power and influence” to protect and enrich the men and “benefit the government of Egypt.”

An agent of Egypt

On Thursday, fresh allegations emerged, with prosecutors saying he conspired to act as an agent of Egypt while serving as the influential chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The senator, his wife and Egyptian-American businessman Wael Hana were charged with conspiring to have a public official act as a foreign agent.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires people that agree to act or are acting as “an agent of a foreign principal” to register with the U.S. Attorney General if they engage in certain conduct “such as political activities, political consulting, public relations or publicity activities for or in the interest of the foreign principal.”

More: Senator Menendez charged with acting as an agent of the Egyptian government

Update: Menendez expected to appear in court Wednesday on charges he acted as agent for Egypt

This is meant to prevent covert influence by other countries. Public officials — including members of Congress — are prohibited from acting as a foreign agent.

Nadine Arslanian Menendez was often a go-between, passing information, setting up meetings, and seeking payments, according to the indictment. Her longtime friend Hana, also charged in the original indictment, facilitated and attended meetings, and his Edgewater-based halal food certification business was used to pay bribes.

“You have a country that was really running a covert influence operation against the United States,” said Asha Rangappa, a senior lecturer at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former FBI special agent specializing in counterintelligence investigations.

Menendez allegedly met with Egyptian officials at restaurants, a hotel, and even his senate office in Washington — without the involvement of staff from his office or the foreign relations committee — as prosecutors say Egyptian officials sought his influence to secretly assist Egypt in its quest to purchase U.S military weapons and remove holds on U.S. financing.

The senator also allegedly disclosed nonpublic information about military aid, and on another occasion provided an article — through his wife — that included questions other U.S. senators intended to ask “a senior Egyptian intelligence official” on a human rights issue, to aid in preparing their rebuttals.

So strong was the affiliation that Hana refers to Menendez as “our man” in a text to an Egyptian official.

Covert influence agent?

Polymeropoulos, who was with the CIA for 26 years, said there are different kinds of agents, or “people who spy.”

“There’s someone we recruit who would be just providing secrets. But there's the covert influence side doing just this — influencing the policy of another government. This is exactly what he was doing.

“To me, as an intelligence professional, it’s kind of glaring,” he said.

Menendez has maintained his innocence and said once all the facts are presented he will be exonerated. Amid calls for his resignation, Menendez has said he is “not going anywhere,” but has stepped down from his post as chair of the foreign relations committee.

The indictment does not cite the passing of any classified information. All the defendants were initially charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, while Menendez and his wife were additionally charged with conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.

“People often have the mistaken impression that it’s only the passing of classified information that harms national security,” said Rangappa. “Other countries are always looking for ways for insights into what is happening behind-the-scenes here. What are we thinking?”

Learning another country’s positions before a meeting is sought-after intelligence, providing a strategic advantage in negotiations since the heads-up allows time to prepare counter positions or offers.

“So here he is giving that to the Egyptian government, which then puts our people at a disadvantage. That's just heinous as far as I'm concerned,” said Laurence Pfeiffer, director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at George Mason University’s Schar School and a former chief of staff at the CIA.

Soufan said that with the initial bribery charges, “the government might be trying to limit the threat that is caused by Menendez.” But the former agent said it was clear from the outset that this “was not a typical quid pro quo bribery case.”

“All these things that the government is alleging in the indictment does not fit a bribery investigation,”  he said. “This indicates a foreign counterintelligence operation.”

Egypt's golden egg

Rangappa said that for the Egyptians to seemingly have Menendez hooked “was huge.”

“He’s a Holy Grail for them. A member of the Senate, you know, the only thing that gets better than that is if you can get the person in the Oval Office, right?” she said. “And if you can get the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, you basically got a golden egg.”

Menendez not only had access to information, he wielded substantial influence over military aid and arms sales. The indictment notes the State Department would typically honor “holds” placed by the committee chair or ranking member on foreign military financing and foreign military sales.

Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. military aid, behind Israel, receiving more than $1 billion a year during the time Menendez is alleged to have acted to benefit the Arab republic, from 2018 to 2022. But Egypt has often faced resistance when seeking aid amid concerns over human rights abuses and democracy.

In 2017, the year before Menendez’s alleged alliance with Egyptian officials began, the U.S. withheld nearly $200 million in aid to Egypt until it could demonstrate improvements on both fronts, according to the indictment, and canceled more than $65 million.

Menendez’s interactions with Egyptian officials began early in 2018, after he met his future wife, and included discussions about foreign military financing and military sales.

Before one such meeting that year, the Egyptian government gave the senator briefing materials through Hana and his wife “advocating Egyptian foreign policy goals and positions and setting forth Egypt’s requests for the approval of foreign military financing and foreign military sales to Egypt.”

The next day, the senator allegedly texted his wife:

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 

NOTE: These tank rounds are for tanks they have had for many

 years. They are using these in the Sinai for the counter-terrorism

 campaign. 

Nadine Arslanian Menendez forwarded the text to Hana, who forwarded it to two Egyptian officials, one of whom replied with a “thumbs up” emoji.

'Where are the Egyptian intelligence officers?'

No Egyptian officials have been charged and none are referenced by name in the initial or superseding indictment. Soufan notes it’s also unclear if these officials are based in the U.S. or Egypt.

“I believe there is a possibility that the investigation will continue targeting other individuals, because the thing that screams out is where are the Egyptian intelligence officers?” he said. “When a government is trying to recruit somebody on his level, then there are intelligence officers in the government of Egypt who are going to be involved.”

At least five different Egyptian officials interacted with Menendez and his wife here and abroad, including one that she referred to as “the general” in communications with her husband, the indictment says.

One of the senator’s secret meetings was with “a senior Egyptian Intelligence official” at a Washington, D.C., hotel in 2021. According to the indictment, the meeting took place a day before a meeting with other U.S. senators who intended to ask about a human rights issue.

Abbas Kamel, the chief of Egyptian intelligence, was reportedly visiting Washington that week and was expected to meet with members of the foreign relations committee and intelligence officials.

Two days after Menendez met with the senior intelligence official mentioned in the indictment, Hana purchased 22 one-ounce gold bars, each with a unique serial number. Two of them were found when the Menendez residence in Englewood Cliffs was searched by federal authorities.

The senator and his wife also had a private dinner at the same senior official’s home during a trip to Egypt, which was supposed to be an unofficial visit without state department supervision. That changed after a committee staff member contacted the U.S Embassy in Cairo, prompting a different Egyptian official to text “i will probably loose [sic] my job” and “SOS” to Nadine Menendez.

Early meeting covered military financing

The first meeting cited in the indictment between Menendez and Egyptian officials was at the senator’s Washington, D.C., office in March of 2018; military financing was among the topics discussed. No staff were present.

Pfeiffer said that “the fact that he didn't want his staff involved in these meetings sure raises suspicions in my mind as to what he was really up to.”

“In my experience, the only time we ever met with a senator without their staff is when we were briefing him on the most sensitive U.S. intelligence that we could not share with lower-level individuals,” he said.

“Senator Menendez, you would think, would want his staff there in order to memorialize what happened to protect him from the other side making claims about what happened in the meeting that maybe never actually happened,” Pfeiffer said.

That May, the senator and his wife met with Hana, and later that same day Menendez sought non-public information about those serving at the embassy from the State Department.

Menendez texted his future wife with the numbers and nationality of Americans and Egyptians serving at the embassy, and she forwarded the message to Hana, who in turn forwarded it to an Egyptian government official. Though not classified, it was considered “highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public,” the indictment says.

“That information helps to verify for them who actually is or is not at the embassy,” said Pfeiffer. “There might be individuals at the embassy who are operating undercover. This might help them identify those people that are operating undercover. And help them assess, perhaps, targets of opportunity.”

'Very much compromised'

The indictment includes what some experts say is classic recruitment activity: begin by asking for something that is seemingly innocuous, that doesn’t appear too sensitive on face value, then ask for more. 

For instance, Polymeropoulos said that requesting the staffing blueprint at the Cairo embassy fit the “modus operandi” for initial steps in a recruiting operation — both opening the door to more questions about the embassy and new requests for assistance.

“The way that a recruitment cycle works is you have someone you task — your target — do something that is probably not, you know, completely kosher, but isn't necessarily fully illegal,” Rangappa said. “But once you do, what happens is psychologically your target rationalizes their behavior.

"And then they are primed for you to push the envelope a little bit farther the next time," Rangappa said. "And you keep pushing that envelope a little bit farther until the person is effectively compromised.”

She said Menendez was “already in trouble” when he met with Egyptian officials without staff and provided nonpublic information.

“But once he starts taking money for it, then he's very much compromised, and then they have their hooks in him,” she said.

Pfeiffer said at that point the person becomes blackmailable — susceptible to threats to reveal his actions to the world unless he provides even more sensitive material.

“Then they’ve got the person forever as an asset,” said Pfeiffer. “It’s a scary proposition.”

Should not remain in position of public trust

That’s one reason why Menendez should not remain in a position of public trust, said Rangappa, who with Polymeropoulos has written about the threat Menendez poses to national security. A big issue now, she said, is the government of Egypt may have even more information from Menendez than the U.S is yet aware of.

“In other words, they still have leverage over him if they can use anything that the senator would be afraid to have revealed,” she said. “Then he's still available to do their bidding.”

Polymeropoulos points out the indictment represents only what the government believes it can charge and convict on.

“It's not necessarily all that he’s done. So there actually could be much more even in the more classified realm of what he has passed and they didn’t put it out there,” he said. “There might be more that he's done that is just so highly classified that they actually don't even want to go down that road.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Sen. Menendez's actions for Egypt are potential national security threat