Gold Bars, Wads of Cash and a Senator’s Indictment

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. tavernisi and this is the daily. [Music]. in one of the most explosive political. corruption cases in recent history. Federal prosecutors have accused a. senior U.S senator of trading the power. of his position for cash gifts and gold. today my colleague Tracy Tully on the. lurid charges against Robert Menendez.

his wife Nadine and an Egyptian American. businessman at the center of the scheme. it's Tuesday September 26th. [Music]. so Tracy tell me about this corruption. case against Senator Robert Menendez of. New Jersey you know it came out at the. end of last week and I was reading the.

coverage over the weekend it just seemed. to get bigger and bigger the details are. just kind of unbelievable it's now. Monday afternoon tell me what we know. so Senator Menendez who's a Democrat. he's in his third term in the Senate but. he's represented New Jersey and Congress. for three decades he was the chairman of. the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. and he is now accused of taking bribes. which came in the form of a Mercedes.

convertible hundreds of thousands of. dollars in cash. and gold bullion bars. and in exchange for these gifts and. bribes according to the indictment. he is accused of trying to help several. businessmen in New Jersey and also a. foreign government of Egypt okay so this. is something we don't hear about in the. Senate every day a sprawling bribery.

case involving a foreign power piles of. cash and gold bars I mean it's just. remarkable so let's dig in here where. does the story of this case start. will this story starts pretty much where. his last legal troubles ended. New Jersey's senior senator finds. himself in the defendant seat as day one. of his corruption trial gets underway in. 2017 he stood trial it was a nine-week.

trial for corruption Menendez is facing. multiple counts of bribery and. conspiracy for allegedly he was accused. of accepting gifts and bribes from a. doctor. there was a hung jury the judge. throughout the most serious charges a. mistrial was declared today and the. federal bribery trial of Democratic. senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. the jury in Newark was hopelessly. deadlocked after six days of. deliberations to those who embraced me. in my darkest moment I love you.

to those new jerseyans. who gave me the benefit of the doubt. I think. and justice department in late January. of 2018. decided not to pursue the case any. further. [Music]. and a few weeks later he starts dating a.

woman who is at the center of this new. investigation. Nadine ourselanian. so who is Nadine or salanian tell me. about her Nadine is also from New Jersey. not far from where Menendez is from. she's a stay-at-home mom with two adult. children and she struggled financially. after her divorce they begin dating in. February of 2018. and. by all accounts it's a whirlwind romance.

they start traveling together. Puerto Rico Greece Turks and Caicos. Colombia and finally in October of 2019. there in India traveling and he pops the. question. videotaped and in. style in front of the Taj Mahal in song.

he's fond of singing and calling people. for their birthdays and singing happy. birthday but he sings Never Enough from. the greatest Showman. wow that's quite a proposal it was quite. a proposal yes. she accepts. and one year later they're married in a. small pandemic ceremony in Queens.

so how did this Whirlwind romance turn. into a legal liability what happened. so before Nadine even began dating. Senator Menendez she was part of a. Social Circle in northern New Jersey a. small group of friends and they would go. to dinners together and they shared a. love of Cuban cigars and some of them. did karaoke and one of these people is. an Egyptian American businessman by the.

name of will Hannah who had some. experience with import export into Egypt. and he becomes a very Central character. in Nadine and Senator Menendez life but. also in the indictment. what do you mean well Hannah according. to the indictment. is the link to the bribery scheme. involving Senator Menendez and his wife. Nadine.

Hannah runs a Halal certification. company based in New Jersey and he in a. meeting with the senator Ben Nadine. agrees to put Nadine on the payroll of. his company in a low or no-show job and. in exchange for this compensation for. Nadine. Senator Menendez Courtney prosecutors. agrees to help further the interests of.

the Egyptian government by way of. military equipment and financial aid at. a time when the Egyptian government was. very concerned that its Aid could have. dipped based on some very public. concerns about humanitarian issues that. were going on in Egypt. and why was Hannah doing that was he. connected to the Egyptian government or. the Egyptian Military was he working for.

them we really don't know but he. definitely had connections with Egyptian. military leaders and their developed a. system whereby Nadine would pass. messages to Hannah and then Hannah would. pass them to the Egyptian officials. sometimes in encrypted calls sometimes. through text messaging we know at one. point that at the request of an Egyptian.

official Senator Menendez according to. the indictment actually ghost wrote and. edited a letter trying to convince other. U.S senators to provide 300 million. dollars in Aid to Egypt and he sent this. secret letter to Nadine from his. personal email account Nadine then. forwards this ghost Written Letter to. Hannah. and then Hannah sends it back to. Egyptian officials were there other.

things Menendez was alleged to have done. on behalf of Egypt. yes there are several specific things. mentioned in the indictment that Senator. Menendez is accused of doing for example. at one point he seeks information from. the state department it's non-public. information regarding the number of. people and the nationality of people at. the U.S Embassy in Cairo this was not. classified information but it was deemed. highly sensitive because it could pose.

some significant security concerns if. disclosed and they passed this. information from Nadine to will Hannah. and then ultimately ends up with an. Egyptian Military official. and in another situation there is a. discussion about military financing and. foreign military sales to Egypt and the. next day Senator Menendez texts Nadine. and says tell will I'm going to sign off.

on this sale to Egypt today and Nadine. forwards this text to Hannah Hannah. forwards it to an Egyptian official. and the Egyptian official replies via. text with a thumbs up emoji so Menendez. is using his really powerful position in. the Senate to essentially help Egypt. with some of the things it wants from. the U.S including military aid and he's. doing it through Hannah as an. intermediary at the same time Hannah has.

put menendez's wife on staff at his. company. that's right and an interesting part of. the indictment was there's a sense that. Nadine was very frustrated by her friend. Hannah because the company wasn't doing. terribly well and in turn she wasn't. being paid for her lower no-show job but. that all changes April of 2019 when all. of a sudden the Egyptian government gave. this company the Monopoly this Halal. Monopoly and will Hannah's company is.

pretty much overnight given the entire. United States business I'll meet. imported into Egypt certified Halal. comes through wilhana and that's a. sudden change of Fortune for Hannah and. it turns out also for Nadine. in one text cited in the indictment. Nadine text Senator Menendez. seems like Halal went through it might. be a fantastic 2019 all the way around.

so the government of Egypt is giving. effectively carp launch to this one tiny. company run by Hannah so you know this. decision gives essentially a monopoly to. Hannah's company and enriches him and. Nadine but does that connect to Menendez. is there a line there the indictment. shows that Menendez does get involved. here. after the Egyptian government gave a.

monopoly to this one company. several people from the USDA raised. concerns they raise concerns because. prior to this Monopoly four companies in. the United States have been doing this. work and they were concerned that this. shift to a sole operator could increase. costs of me to an entire nation and also. could disrupt markets in the United. States the USDA asked the Egyptian.

government to reconsider its decision. and around that time in late May Cerna. Menendez calls a high level USDA. official and essentially conveys the. message to back off and to stop raising. objections to this Monopoly so. literal prosecutors actually close in on. Senator Bob Menendez like when does this. go from an investigation where they're.

looking into things into a criminal. prosecution where he's being charged. well what we know is that in June of. 2022. federal agents raided the home of Nadine. and Senator Menendez in Englewood Cliffs. and also searched a safe deposit box in. Nadine's name. and they found a lot. and we learned exactly what it was they. found last Friday.

my name is Damian Williams and I'm the. United States Attorney here in the. southern district of New York when the. U.S attorney for the southern district. of New York Damien Williams revealed all. of the many items that were taken from. their house that day special agents with. the FBI executed search warrants on the. residents and safe deposit box of. Senator Menendez and Nadine Menendez in. New Jersey and those included. approximately five hundred thousand. dollars of cash.

stuffed into envelopes and closets cash. agents also discovered a lot of gold 13. bars of gold bullion home mortgage. payments a Mercedes-Benz and other. things of value for the senator and his. wife it was really stunning what. prosecutors laid out this investigation. is very much ongoing we are not done. and I want to encourage anyone with. information to come forward and to come. forward quickly it was so sweeping and.

so damning if true that it led political. leaders throughout the state and. throughout the country to begin to. question whether Senator Menendez had. become so compromised that he could not. serve any longer. and this then all set the stage for the. political challenge that Senator. Menendez is now facing. [Music].

we'll be right back. so Tracy really explosive charges in. this indictment what is the initial. reaction to them. it was Swift you just got a statement. from the governor and let me read it to. you because it's very serious so by five. o'clock Friday night the governor of New. Jersey Phil Murphy who's a Democrat. issues an email the allegations in the.

indictment against Senator Menendez and. four other defendants are deeply. disturbing and calls for menendez's. immediate resignation the alleged facts. are so serious that they compromise the. ability of Senator Menendez to. effectively represent the people of our. state within seconds a tsunami of emails. flow in from pretty much all other major. Democratic leaders in the state in. lockstep calling for Senator menendez's.

resignation which was very different. than what we saw in 2017 when political. leaders throughout the state stood with. Senator Menendez and Tracy why would. they not have done that in the past. prosecution of Menendez but they're. doing it now why are they calling for. his stepping down now. two reasons for that one is the. indictment appears on its face to be far. more serious this time around and.

involves a foreign Government Federal. Aid weapons and potentially meddling. into criminal investigations. but additionally when Sarah Menendez. faced trial in 2017 New Jersey had a. republican governor governor Chris. Christie which meant that if Menendez. had stepped down then the governor would. have chosen a republican replacement. more than likely. but now if Senator Menendez were to step.

down a Democratic governor governor. Murphy would choose his replacement and. so it's a little bit of a different. calculus. okay so that's Democrats in the state of. New Jersey what about National level. Democrats they've had a far more muted. response we heard initially from Senator. Chuck Schumer of New York basically. saying he deserves his day in court. let's not rush to judgment a few other. folks in the Senate have in fact called.

for his resignation. John Federman of Pennsylvania as a Shard. Brown of Ohio. but in general the White House was. sending signals that they're not going. to put their fingers on the scale that. it's really up to Senator Menendez and. the Democratic leaders in the Senate to. decide whether he steps down or not. and I think it's slightly different. because they're concerned more about the.

balance of power in the Senate which is. already a razor thin majority for Dems. and not upsetting that balance of power. if they don't need to and what was. considered a very safe seat for a very. long time the thought of having to. defend that c and to spend money. defending it is not appealing. so what does Menendez himself actually. say about what happened in the charges. we heard a lot at a news conference held.

in his home turf in Hudson County Union. City. good morning thank you to all of you who. are here today especially the new. jerseyans who have joined me as I. address the events of the last few days. he basically asked. can you use the word humbly I humbly ask. all I humbly asked for in this moment is. to pause and allow for all the facts to. be presented. give me a chance and let the case play.

out as it should I firmly believe that. when all the facts are presented not. only will I be exonerated but I still. will be the New Jersey's senior senator. he's confident that he will be. exonerated remember. prosecutors get it wrong sometimes and. the facts have been presented in a way. that are salacious by the federal. prosecutors and that it's really not.

that bad guys and then he tried to. explain. the cash for 30 years I have withdrawn. thousands of dollars in cash from my. personal savings account. he said that it had become his Habit to. withdraw large sums of money to keep in. his home which I have kept for. emergencies and because of the history. of my family facing confiscation in Cuba. he sort of suggested without fully.

explaining that this was a habit that. stemmed from his parents experience in. Cuba they are both refugees from Cuba. so he's basically denying it but in a. not very strident almost kind of. sheepish way I would say that's right I. think even by raising it as an issue he. recognizes that it's going to be. difficult to explain that away. thank you very much.

so Tracy step. back a little here this is a man who. already spent a number of years of his. career fighting corruption charges even. going to trial over them. so it kind of mystifies me that he is. accused of doing it again. how do you explain that. people were frankly Gob smacked by the.

timing and especially as laid out in the. indictment. the allegations are that within a month. of being cleared by the justice. department in early 2018. he essentially according to prosecutors. begins this corrupt scheme to accept. bribes for the benefit of the Egyptian. government and it's just mind-boggling. if true it appears almost Reckless so.

soon after getting out from under. earlier charges that took years of his. life and to throw himself headlong into. this new scheme it just people were just. scratching their heads and saying how is. this even possible. [Music]. according to the indictment it was. Nadine and Hannah that were the ones. planning the meetings were the ones that. were the go-betweens with the Egyptian.

officials. yeah. and I think there is a lot yet to be. learned about how knowing Senator. Menendez was at least in the beginning. about the true motive of the Egyptian. officials. Tracy thank you thank you. [Music].

Senator Menendez and his wife Nadine as. well as their co-defendants are. scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow. morning at a federal courthouse in. Manhattan. all of them are expected to plead not. guilty. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. we'll be right back.

here's what else you should know today. on Monday Ukraine's military claimed. that it had killed the commander of. Russia's Black Sea Fleet in an audacious. attack which if true would represent a. major blow to Russia's Navy. the Ukrainian attack which involved a. combination of missiles and exploding. drones targeted a meeting of Russian. military leaders on Friday at their. headquarters in Crimea.

video footage of the attack showed an. Airborne weapon plunging into the. Russian headquarters and then detonating. the building was engulfed in debris and. smoke. Ukrainian officials say the attack. killed 34 Russian officers and wounded. dozens more including two senior Russian. generals. today's episode was produced by Sydney.

Harper and Stella tan with help from. Alexandra Lee Young Eric krupke and Luke. vanderplug it was edited by Lexi diao. and Lisa Chao contains original music by. Marion Lozano and Alicia vietu and was. engineered by Chris Wood. our theme music is by Jim brunberg and. Ben lansberg of Wonderland. that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina. taverdesi see you tomorrow.

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