Sen. Bob Menendez gives first interview since Monday's arraignment. Here's what he said

Shortly after being arraigned in federal court on Monday for the second time in as many months, Sen. Bob Menendez issued a statement that said he would not “litigate this case through the press.”

The state’s senior senator seems to have changed his mind, as he sat down with David Cruz of NJ Spotlight News during his weekly Chat Box show Thursday to go over the allegations against him. While he seemed to have an answer for everything, including why he had nearly $500,000 in cash, other topics were glaringly absent.

Cruz didn’t touch on that fateful night five years ago when Menendez’s then-girlfriend and now wife and co-defendant, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, hit and killed a man in Bogota. There was also no mention of the allegations that co-defendant Edgewater developer Fred Daibes’ fingerprints and DNA were on the envelopes said cash was in when federal investigators took them into custody.

The host asked Menendez about his relationship with his wife and briefly asked about co-defendant Wael Hana’s halal business, but the senator laughed off both topics, saying he loves his wife and looks forward to a “long relationship with her,” before referring questions about Hana’s business to his co-defendant, though not by name.

Throughout the almost 30-minute interview, Menendez maintained his innocence and reiterated that the government presented the information in the most “sensational” and “salacious way possible.”

“As I read the indictment, there’s a lot of inferences but not a lot of facts at the end of the day,” Menendez said. “Those inferences try to create a storyline that is the most negative, pejorative storyline you can create.”

Menendez never delved too far into specifics about the allegations against him because he had to save that for his defense, he said.

He did note that he had drawn $400 a week from his savings account for almost 30 years but wouldn’t provide further details.

Though he stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez said he has not been sidelined from his work in Washington and that he skipped an intelligence briefing about the war in Israel because after decades of foreign relations work, he “didn’t need to go to an intelligence briefing” to know what to do to stand by Israel.

Menendez also laughed off a question about financial difficulties during the timeline outlined in the indictment, saying he lives a “pretty simple life” and has “never had financial difficulties” and has a “great credit rating.”

The senator called the most recent indictment, which alleges that he conspired to work as a foreign agent for Egypt, “outrageous as it is absurd” and said it “flies in the face of a long history” of opposing things like the human rights violations that Egypt has been accused of in the past.

Kelly: Senator Clueless? What was NJ's Bob Menendez thinking in dealing with Egypt?

Menendez said that ultimately he is focused on proving his innocence and that there is “more work to be done.”

“The easiest thing to do would be to resign … but that’s not me. I don’t do the easiest thing,” Menendez said. “I’m innocent, and I’m going to prove it.”

Menendez appeared in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan on Monday to plead not guilty to charges ranging from bribery to acting as a foreign agent.

The senator’s four co-defendants — his wife, Hana, Daibes and businessman Jose Uribe — entered not guilty pleas last week.

A superseding indictment filed earlier this month by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York says New Jersey’s senior senator, his wife and Hana allegedly conspired for the senator to act as a foreign agent from January 2018 through at least June 2022 for the Egyptian government and Egyptian officials, even as he sat as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The new indictment alleges that Menendez, his wife and Hana "willfully and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together" to have the senator "act as an agent of a foreign principal, to wit, the government of Egypt and Egyptian officials, required to register under FARA," the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Menendez: How will US foreign policy change with Menendez facing charges?

That law is meant to prevent other countries from influencing the American government, and it is illegal for a member of Congress to act as an agent of a foreign principal.

The indictment cites the Senate Ethics Manual, which states that “regardless of compensation, a public official may not act as an agent or attorney for a foreign principal required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”

The senator, his wife and Hana — along with Daibes and Uribe — already face charges for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme that saw Menendez and his wife accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble.

The original indictment, filed last month, alleged 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.”

Menendez stepped down as the Foreign Relations Committee chair after that indictment was filed. Gov. Phil Murphy, Sen. Cory Booker and fellow Democrats in Congress have called on Menendez to resign as senator. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman called on his colleagues to expel Menendez after news of the new indictment broke.

At a conference held earlier this month, the judge scheduled the trial to start on May 6.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bob Menendez gives sit-down interview after indictment