Federal prosecutors brought new charges against US Senator Bob Menendez and his wife, including conspiracy and acting as an “unofficial” or unregistered agent for Egypt and Egyptian officials, according to the Associated Press.
The new charges, brought against him in Manhattan federal court today, Thursday, included that Menendez violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the US government if they are working in that capacity. As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he had registered himself in that capacity.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a US law that imposes public disclosure obligations on people who represent foreign interests. Although this law does not prohibit foreign agents from lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, nor does it prohibit or restrict any specific activities, it requires “foreign agents”, defined as individuals or entities engaged in domestic lobbying or advocacy on behalf of foreign governments, organisations or persons, to register with the Department of Justice and disclose their relationship, their activities and the related financial compensation.
Its clear purpose is to promote transparency regarding foreign influence on American public opinion, policy and laws; to this end, the Department of Justice is required to make this information available to the public.
The charges also indicate that the conspiracy took place from January 2018 to June 2022, and that Menendez, his wife and their Egyptian business partner Wael Hana met in May 2019 with an Egyptian intelligence official in Menendez’s office in the Congress building in Washington. During the meeting, they discussed a US citizen who was seriously injured in an air strike carried out by Egyptian forces in 2015 using a US-made Apache helicopter, according to the charges. Some members of Congress had objected to granting certain military aid to Egypt because of that incident, and some lawmakers believed that the Egyptian government did not intend to compensate the injured US citizen fairly, according to the charges.
Shortly after the meeting in Washington, the Egyptian official sent a text message to Wael Hana stating that if Menendez helped resolve the matter, “he will be in a very comfortable position”. Hana replied: “Your orders, consider it done,” according to the charges.
The new charge comes just weeks after the Democrat and his wife were charged with accepting bribes, including cash, gold bars and a luxury car, from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator to help them and to influence foreign affairs.
