The N.J. senator was accused of taking lavish gifts, including gold bars, as bribes.
, the powerful New Jersey Democrat who serves as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was indicted Friday on federal corruption charges that ensnared his wife and others in a case that involved bars of gold, payments toward a home mortgages, no-show jobs and political influence.
The 69-year-old, who is facing re-election next year, was accused of taking a series of official acts and breaches of official duties in exchange for bribes that benefitted both him directs, and indirectly through his wife, Nadine Arslanian. According to the indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt.
The indictment said the senator also improperly pressured an individual at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the purpose of protecting a business monopoly granted to a friend, Wael Hana, whose New Jersey company had been authorized by the Egyptian government to verify that halal meat exported for sale to the country’s 90 million Muslims had been prepared according to Islamic law.
The charges carry major political implications as the Democrats hold a razor-thin margin in the upper house.
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