Should you thought the allegations of corruption towards New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez couldn’t go any deeper, you clearly aren’t accustomed to hiding gold bars in your sock drawer. On Tuesday, New York prosecutors leveled one other superseding indictment towards the Democratic senator, citing the overall of indictments towards Menendez to 3 within the state’s ongoing corruption and bribery investigation into the lawmaker, his spouse, and several other enterprise associates.
In September, Menendez was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit trustworthy companies fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion. Prosecutors alleged that Menendez and his spouse, Nadine, had “agreed to and did settle for tons of of hundreds of {dollars} of bribes in trade for utilizing Menendez’s energy and affect as a Senator to hunt to guard and enrich,” three businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes. The costs included allegations that Menendez had abused his publish to unlawfully help the federal government of Egypt, and confirmed that investigators had discovered envelopes of money and even stable bars of gold stashed all through the senator’s dwelling.
Issues have been already wanting grim, however in October, prosecutors leveled extra costs accusing Menendez of getting “offered delicate U.S. Authorities info and took different steps that secretly aided the Authorities of Egypt,” and appearing as a international agent. On Friday, Uribe pleaded responsible to seven counts — together with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit trustworthy companies wire fraud, and trustworthy companies wire fraud — and entered a cooperation settlement with prosecutors.
Now, authorities have leveled a 3rd indictment towards the senator, alleging that he used his elected workplace to unlawfully profit the federal government of Qatar.
Regardless of calls from dozens of Democrats for his resignation, Menendez has refused to vacate his seat, solely going as far as to voluntarily step down from his place as Chair of the Overseas Relations Committee.
However whereas Menendez appears decided to maintain a grip on his Senate workplace, Democrats in his dwelling state are gearing as much as power him out through vote. The state is now the positioning of a hotly contested race to interchange Menendez ought to he resign or be compelled out earlier than election day.
