‘Politics for profit:’ US Senator Robert Menendez convicted of bribery, acting as foreign agent for Egypt

Democrat Senator Robert Menendez was convicted by a United States federal court on Wednesday on charges including bribery, extortion, wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent after accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz and granting political favors to Egypt.

With the conviction, which he intends to appeal, Menendez became the first US senator in history to be charged for acting as a foreign agent.

The charges rested on evidence presented by federal prosecutors in New York last year about high stakes decisions Menendez was responsible for during his period in office as head of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee from 2018 to 2022.

According to the indictment papers, Menendez was active in issues such as pushing for the disbursement of US military aid to Egypt at moments when the quantity of aid was in question, and lobbying for the State Department to be more active on Egypt's behalf regarding negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the megadam Ethiopia built on the Nile.

“This case has always been about shocking levels of corruption,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Tuesday. “This wasn’t business as usual, it was politics for profit.”

Wael Hanna, an Egyptian-American businessman who emerged in the indictment as a middle-man and co-profiteer from the cash-for-benefits scheme, was also convicted for his role in facilitating contact between Egyptian officials and Menendez.

Menendez’s wife Nadine, whose trial is currently suspended as she receives health treatment, and real estate developer Fred Daibes were also implicated in the trial, with jurors finding Daibes guilty on Tuesday. Another businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty earlier this year for providing Menendez’s wife with a Mercedes in exchange for the senator's influence on the outcome of legal proceedings against Uribe’s business associates.

Menendez also lobbied US government officials to turn a blind eye toward anticompetitive practices by Hana’s company, IS EG Halal Certified, which was used, the indictment claims, to pay the bribes to Menendez and his wife. 

Mada Masr revealed that IS EG Halal was granted exclusive rights by Egypt’s Agriculture Ministry to audit and accredit US and South American beef exporters as halal compliant — a monopoly that ultimately pushed three competing US companies out of the market and raised the cost of beef for Egyptians already struggling to make ends meet in a strenuous economic climate. 

The indictment stated that Hana used his ties to Egyptian government and military officials to push for the IS EG Halal monopoly, which would then serve as a sustainable revenue stream to use to pay off Nadine after she threatened that Menendez would “cease acting for Hana’s benefit and at his request, including with respect to Egypt, unless Hana came through on his promises and paid her.”

Along with Nadine, the network of businesspeople acted as a conduit between Menendez and five unnamed Egyptian government officials, including military and intelligence figures mentioned in the indictment papers, allowing them to present their interests to the lawmaker, request that he exercise his power in their interests in Washington DC and provide him and his wife with expensive “gifts” in return. 

Menendez continued to plead not guilty following the verdict, telling reporters outside the courtroom that he intends to appeal the ruling. A sentencing session, which could see Menendez face sentences as long as 20 years in prison, was set for October 29.