(Union City) American parliamentarian Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, objected on Monday to the federal judiciary’s accusation of corruption related to Egypt, and refused to resign.
Speaking to the press in English and Spanish, the veteran politician, an elected Democrat of Cuban descent, described the charges brought by New York federal prosecutor Damien Williams, announced on Friday, as “allegations, simply put, these are allegations.”
Between 2018 and 2022, Mr. Menendez and his wife Nadine allegedly accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes from three businessmen from his home state, New Jersey, by “using his power and influence to protect and enrich these businessmen and support the Egyptian government.”
While calls for his resignation have been mounting since Friday, including from his own camp, the 69-year-old, who was elected to both houses of Congress for 30 years, said he was convinced that he “will be vindicated and will remain the former president.” Senator from New Jersey.
Menendez defended “some who are calling for my resignation for political reasons, and say that I have lost the trust of the people of New Jersey,” a state with a population of nine million that borders New York.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said from his stronghold in Union City, surrounded by dozens of supporters.
Photography by Andres Kodaki, The Associated Press
Senator Bob Menendez
According to the indictment order and specific information from The New York TimesIn June 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Police, discovered in the home of the Menendez couple $500,000 in cash and 13 gold bars (three kilograms).
“Over the course of 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I kept for emergencies because of my family’s history of facing confiscations and confiscations in Cuba,” Robert Menendez said, explaining.
The courts accused him of favoring the Egyptian government, an ally of Washington, especially during arms sales, and the Democratic senator noted that he “directly challenged the president.” [égyptien Abdel Fattah] Al-Sisi on human rights violations, arbitrary detention, freedoms, etc. “.
Very rare for a senator, Mr. Menendez was actually charged with corruption in 2015 but his trial was canceled in 2017, due to the lack of a unanimous verdict from the jury. In 2018, the Justice Department — headed by Republican Donald Trump — asked a judge to dismiss all charges against him.
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