NEW YORK — Sen. Bob Menendez faced arraignment Monday in Manhattan after being hit with obstruction charges last week.
Last Tuesday, Menendez and his wife Nadine were charged with obstruction of justice in a new 18-count indictment.
They remained silent as they entered Manhattan federal court Monday to be arraigned on new corruption charges.
The allegations this time include obstructing the corruption and bribery investigation into a years-long scheme in which the senator allegedly traded his political influence to benefit Egyptian government officials and for allegedly accepting gold bars, cash and a luxury car from three businessmen seeking favors.
Jose Uribe, one of the businessmen who was charged, recently pleaded guilty, admitting to a judge he gave the senator’s wife a car to influence him.
What’s in the new indictment?
According to new court documents, the senator’s wife met with Uribe after federal investigators executed search warrants at the Menendez home and, during the meeting, they allegedly discussed payments for a Mercedes-Benz convertible he gave her after prosecutors allege the senator agreed to try to influence the prosecution of someone close to Uribe. During their meeting, prosecutors said Uribe agreed he would tell investigators the car payments were loans.
The couple is now charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly falsely characterizing the return of bribe money as repayment for loans.
Menendez called the latest charges “an abuse of power” and insists he is innocent.
“The government has now falsely alleged a cover-up and obstruction,” he said in a statement. “The latest charge reveals far more about the government than it says about me. It says that the prosecutors are afraid of the facts, scared to subject their charges to the fair-minded scrutiny of a jury, and unconstrained by any sense of justice or fair play.”
Menendez, his wife, and two of the businessmen pleaded not guilty to the previous set of charges against them.
The trial is scheduled to start in May.
