Cash ‘Stuffed’ In Jacket Pockets And ‘A LOT Of Gold’: Prosecutor Reveals Astonishing Details of Democratic Senator’s Alleged Bribery Scheme

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has announced the indictment of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) for bribery and corruption, laying out some of the shocking details and evidence in an amazing presser on Friday.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams held a presser complete with photographs that described incredible details of the spectacular scheme, including DNA-covered wads of cash, and massive amounts of gold. The indictment itself even references Google searches conducted by Menendez on how to get away with the crimes that he and his wife are accused of.

Menendez is accused of an elaborate series of schemes in which he and his wife Nadine Menendez accepted bribes to act on behalf of the government of Egypt and his co-conspirators, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes.

At the presser, Williams covered some of the goriest details, such as that when the FBI searched the senator’s home and safe deposit boxes, “they discovered approximately $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in closets.”

“Some of the cash was stuffed in the senator’s jacket pockets. Some of the cash, some of the envelopes of cash contained Daibes’ fingerprints. or Daibes’ DNA,” Williams said.

“That’s not all,” he continued. “Agents also discovered a lot of gold. Gold that was provided by Daibes and Hana. And the FBI, of course, found the Mercedes-Benz that Uribe had provided them.”

There’s a lot more:

The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Senator Menendez, the senior U.S. senator from New Jersey and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe, and, Daibes.

The indictment alleges that through that relationship, the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Senator Menendez, using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt.

The indictment alleges that Hana, Uribe and Daibes provided bribes in the form of cash, gold, home mortgage payments, a low-show or a no-show job for Nadine Menendez, a Mercedes Benz, and other things of value to the senator and his wife. Now constituent service is part of any legislator’s job. Senator Menendez is no different.

And as we explain in the indictment, there are things that Senator Menendez says he can do for his constituents and things that he says he cannot do for his constituents. He put it all on his Senate website. So, for instance, it says he cannot compel an agency to act in someone’s favor. It says he cannot influence matters involving a private business. It says he cannot get involved in criminal matters or cases, period.

But we allege that behind the scenes, Senator Menendez was doing those things for certain people. The people who were bribing him and his wife. And let me say a little bit more about the conduct that’s alleged in the indictment. The indictment alleges that Senator Menendez took several actions as part of this corrupt relationship.

First, the indictment alleges that Senator Menendez used his power and influence, including his leadership role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to benefit the government of Egypt in various ways.

Among other actions, Senator Menendez allegedly provided sensitive, non-public U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and otherwise took steps to secretly aid the government of Egypt. We also allege that Senator Menendez improperly pressured a senior official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect a lucrative monopoly that the government of Egypt had awarded to Hana, a lucrative monopoly that Hana then used to fund certain bribe payments.

Second, the indictment alleges that Senator Menendez used his power and influence to try to disrupt a criminal investigation and prosecution undertaken by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office related to an associate and a relative of Uribe.

Third, the indictment alleges that Senator Menendez used his power and influence to try to disrupt a federal prosecution of Daibes in the District of New Jersey in two ways. First, by seeking to install a United States attorney who he thought could be influence with respect to Daibes. And second, by trying to influence that office to act favorably in Daibes case. And as we allege in the indictment, the senator agreed to do these things and use his power in this way because Hana was paying bribes, because Uribe was paying bribes and because Daibes was paying bribes.

Fortunately, the public officials the senator sought to influence did not bend to the pressure. That’s a good thing. That was part of this investigation. Special agents with the FBI executed search warrants on the residence and safe deposit box of Senator Menendez and Nadine Menendez in New Jersey. When they got there, they discovered approximately $500,000 of cash stuffed into envelopes in closets.

Some of the cash was stuffed in the senator’s jacket pockets. Some of the cash, some of the envelopes of cash contained Daibes’ fingerprints. or Daibes’ DNA. That’s not all. Agents also discovered a lot of gold. Gold that was provided by Daibes and Hana. And the FBI, of course, found the Mercedes-Benz that Uribe had provided them. Of the items that FBI uncovered are discussed in the indictment, which I encourage all of you to read carefully.

Let’s take a look at just some of the items. So as you can see here, this is the Mercedes-Benz that we allege that Uribe provided as part of the scheme. What you see here are three kilograms of gold. These three kilograms together are worth approximately $150,000. And of course, here you can see just a fraction of the cash that was uncovered as part of the scheme.

Now I want to make a couple of things very clear. First, my office remains firmly committed to rooting out public corruption without fear or favor and without any regard to partisan politics. That’s in our DNA. Always has been, always will be. And second, this investigation is very much ongoing. We are not done. And I want to encourage anyone with information to come forward and to come forward quickly. And they can do that by reaching out to the FBI Tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

The indictment also alleges that Sen. Menendez at one point “performed a web search for ‘how much is one kilo of gold worth.” One purpose for taking bribes in gold is to cover your tracks and make it easier to get away with the crime.

The senator has issued a statement denying the allegations and claiming they are an attempt to “silence” him.