Sen. Bob Menendez’s Co-Defendants Plead Not Guilty to New ‘Foreign Agent’ Indictment

The four suspects charged alongside Sen. Bob Menendez — including his wife, Nadine Menendez — pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a superseding indictment in their conspiracy, fraud and bribery case during a Manhattan federal court hearing that the senator did not attend.

The not-guilty pleas were entered at Wednesday’s arraignment after federal prosecutors filed a new indictment on Oct. 12 that charged the senator, his wife and co-defendant Wael Hana with a conspiracy for a public official to act as a foreign agent.

Two other co-defendants, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, were not charged in the additional count, but were nonetheless arraigned Wednesday and entered not-guilty pleas.

U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein, a Bill Clinton appointee, agreed to postponed Sen. Menendez’s arraignment until Monday after his lawyer requested the delay because of “previously scheduled Senate business” that he had to attend to in Washington, D.C., according to court filings in the case.

The new indictment alleges Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, and Nadine Menendez “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials" to the senator beginning in 2018.

As part of the alleged conspiracy, Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shared non-public military information about U.S. military aid to Egypt at a 2018 dinner.

Hana then allegedly passed the information to an unidentified Egyptian official.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Hana’s attorney argued his client’s GPS ankle monitoring device that is part of his bail conditions should be removed pending trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Richenthal argued the device should remain in place, noting Hana has $25 million in net worth that includes commercial properties in Egypt and Uruguay.

Hana is also “deeply connected” to Egyptian government officials and intelligence officers and could potentially secure a passport if he sought to flee before the trial, Richenthal said.

Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said his client was “absolutely resolute about staying here.”

“He wants to face these charges,” Lustberg said, arguing the GPS device is not needed to assure he won’t flee the country.

Judge Stein denied the request to remove the tracking device.

In addition to the foreign-agent charge, Sen. Menendez and Nadine Menendez were charged in a federal bribery conspiracy in which they allegedly accepted gifts that included gold bars, cash and a Mercedes-Benz from Hana and their two other co-defendants.

Sen. Menendez pleaded not guilty to the original indictment and has said he will not resign because of the charges.

The lawmaker stepped down as head of the Foreign Relations Committee after his original indictment and did not attend a classified briefing Wednesday about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in Manhattan federal court on May 6, 2024.