US Senator Bob Menendez returned to court Monday to enter an expected not guilty plea to conspiracy charges alleging he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government despite his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menendez, 69, is scheduled to appear this afternoon before Judge Sidney H. Stein in federal court in Manhattan.
The Democrat stepped down from his powerful position leading the Senate committee after he was impeached last month.
Prosecutors said the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car over the past five years from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for various acts of corruption.
Other defendants entered not guilty pleas to superseding indictments last week. The senator was allowed to adjourn his trial so that he could carry out his Senate duties.
Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, leave federal court Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in New York. AP
He has said that all his life he is loyal to the United States and that he will show his innocence.
Menendez has rejected calls from more than 30 Democrats that he resign.
The rewritten indictment added charges that the senator, his wife and one of the businessmen conspired to have Menendez act as an agent of the Egyptian government and Egyptian officials.
As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from acting as an agent for a foreign government.
Menendez is accused of passing information to Egyptians about staff at the US embassy in Cairo, writing letters on behalf of Egypt aimed at influencing fellow senators and urging the US State Department to be more involved in international negotiations to block the dam project that Egypt opposes, among others.
Last week, Nadine Menendez and a businessman, Wael Hana, pleaded not guilty to the superseding charges.
Both of them are accused of conspiring with the senator to use him as an agent of the Egyptian government and its officials.
The charge carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
