Sen. Menendez files to have indictment dismissed that alleges he took bribes

Just a day after defending his innocence on the Senate floor, Sen. Bob Menendez formalized his case Wednesday by filing to have the federal corruption charges pending against him dismissed.

His attorney Adam Fee filed a motion to dismiss an indictment that alleges Menendez took hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars and other payments in exchange for providing assistance to the governments of Egypt and Qatar and using his clout in an effort to help three New Jersey businessmen get out of legal trouble.

Fee argues that the allegations go against the speech and debate clause of the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonnell v. United States, which overturned the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Menendez used the same argument to fight a 2017 indictment.

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In that instance, U.S. District Judge William H. Walls suggested that language in the Supreme Court’s opinion to overturn McDonnell’s conviction required that prosecutors show Menendez had agreed to do specific official acts on behalf of his co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor and longtime friend, in exchange for gifts or payments.

None of the 18 charges against Menendez was thrown out using the defense in 2017. Prosecutors warned at the time that such a move would “broadly legalize pay-to-play politics.”

Menendez also tried at that time to use the speech and debate clause argument. The clause is interpreted as protecting members of Congress from having to worry about anything they say during legislative activities that could implicate them in a lawsuit.

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The senator's trial ended in a mistrial after that jury voted 10-2 for acquittal. Prosecutors eventually chose not to retry the case.

The dismissal request filed Wednesday related to the latest indictment notes that all opposition papers will be filed before Feb. 5 and a reply by Feb. 12.

Fee said in a statement that the motion was filed to "expose the government’s case is rotten at its core."

"The charges against him violate constitutional safeguards designed to stop overzealous prosecutors from second-guessing the good-faith actions of elected officials," Fee said. "Much of what the prosecutors have charged here cannot even constitute a crime. There should be no trial."

Menendez defends himself on Senate floor

Menendez said during an address from the Senate chamber floor Tuesday that the timing of the latest 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,” he said, adding that it harms not just himself, but his Senate colleagues, the political establishment and the people of New Jersey.

Menendez said the U.S. Attorney's Office is engaged “not in a prosecution but a persecution” and that it wants a “victory, not justice.”

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

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

“How nefarious is that?” Menendez asked.

Menendez, Fred Daibes and Qatar

In his remarks, Menendez did not mention his co-defendant, 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 for helping the developer get a Qatari investment company with ties to that country’s government to invest in a Daibes property in New Jersey.

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.

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.

The Daibes-Qatar connection

In June 2021, Menendez allegedly introduced Daibes to an investor who was a member of the Qatari royal family and the principal of an investment 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 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.

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

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: Sen. Menendez files to have corruption indictment dismissed