Corruption is Everywhere - I was right! Nadine Menendez is an Egyptian plant!

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Actually, I accused Nadine of being an Egyptian plant three weeks ago: Personally, I think Nadine is inordinately involved here. Could it be she is an Egyptian plant? and again one week ago: I really hope Nadine is investigated as a potential spy for Egypt. It just looks so right.

Sen. Bob Menendez, wife accused of being foreign agents

as photos show meeting with Egyptian officials

By Ryan King, Priscilla DeGregory and Ben Kochman

Published Oct. 12, 2023, 12:30 p.m. ET

NYPost

Pictures released by the feds Thursday show New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife meeting with Egyptian officials — as the pair were hit with fresh charges of illegally acting as foreign agents of the country while allegedly pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold bars and other bribes.

Menendez, 69, his wife Nadine and Egyptian-born business associate Wael Hana were all charged with helping the veteran Democrat — already accused of secretly lobbying his colleagues to unfreeze $300 million in military aid earmarked for Cairo officials — act on behalf of Egypt without disclosing it to the US government.

Menendez’s alleged time as an unregistered agent of Egypt came while he held the powerful post as chair of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee — which was tasked with overseeing US military funding to the country.

The new indictment includes explosive details regarding an alleged May 2019 meeting in which the senator met in his Washington DC office with an Egyptian intelligence official to discuss Congress’s reservations about funding the Egyptian military in light of a 2015 Egyptian airstrike on a tourist group that seriously injured an American citizen.

At the time, some members of Congress were objecting to the US providing Egypt with military aid due to the attack, according to the court papers unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

Shortly after the meeting, which was also attended by Nadine and Hana the senator searched the web for information about the airstrike and the American’s injuries, court papers unsealed in Manhattan federal court say.

A week later, the same Egyptian agent texted Hana that Mendendez “would sit very comfortably” if he helped resolve the matter.

“Consider it done,” Hana replied.

Nadine Mendendez also deleted her texts with Hana about the airstrike episode which included screenshots of the US citizen’s attorney’s claims about the event, court papers say.

The court papers do not further identify the airstrike, but Egyptian officials admitted in September 2015 that the country’s security forces had killed 12 people and injured 10 more after mistakenly attacking a tourist group.

The indictment does not draw a direct line between the May 2019 meeting and alleged efforts that Menendez may have taken to assuage his colleagues’ concerns about the airstrike.

That could explain why it was not mentioned in the previous indictment, which more directly connected the alleged favors Menendez is accused of exchanging for bribes.

The filing unsealed Thursday also accuses Menendez of hypocritically calling out former Florida GOP Congressman David Rivera for violating the same Foreign Agent Registration Act he’s now accused of breaching himself.

In May 2020, Mendendez sent a press release asking the Justice Department to investigate Rivera for working for Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.

Rivera, who represented a Miami-area district in Congress from 2011 to 2013, was later arrested on federal criminal charges of money laundering and representing a foreign government without registering.

Yet Menendez’s finger-pointing came months after the senator had met with the Egyptian official in his office and allegedly began violating the same foreign agent law, the new indictment says.

Menendez, his wife and Hana —  the Edgewater, NJ., businessman accused of being a middleman between the Menendez couple and Egyptian officials   — have all previously pleaded not guilty, as have two other co-defendants in the case.

In a statement Thursday, Menendez said the latest charge “flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President El-Sisi on these issues.

“I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country — the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom,” he said. “Piling new charge upon new charge does not make the allegations true. The facts haven’t changed, only a new charge. It is an attempt to wear someone down and I will not succumb to this tactic. I again ask people who know me and my record to give me the chance to present my defense and show my innocence.”

Hana’s attorney, Larry Lustberg, said in a statement that, “The new allegation that Wael Hana was part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Senator Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is as absurd as it is false.

“As with the other charges in this indictment, Mr. Hana will vigorously defend against this baseless allegation.”

If you are really innocent, is it necessary to 'vigorously' defend yourself?

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