Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey has been indicted on federal corruption charges, officials said Friday.
The 69-year-old Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. The indictment against Menendez follows a lengthy investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, nearly six years after his trial on unrelated claims of corruption ended with a hung jury.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court alleges the senator’s wife of three years, Nadine Menendez, 56, and Fred Teibs, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer, of participating in the corruption scheme. A fifth person, New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe, was also charged, Wael Hana, a longtime friend of Ms Menendez who founded a halal meat certification business in New Jersey.
Mr. It has been known for some time that Menendez is under federal investigation, and he has said he is willing to help investigators and hopes the case will be “successfully closed.”
Mr. Representatives for Menendez and the others could not immediately be reached for comment on the allegations.
The charge is almost certain to reverberate in Washington and New Jersey.
In the election scheduled for re-election for a fourth term in the Senate, Mr. Menendez already faces at least one Democratic challenger, and the Republican mayor of Mendham Borough, NJ has announced a run for the seat.
Mr. If Menendez steps down before the end of his term, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, Philip D. Murphy is responsible for appointing a successor.
Pleading guilty to financial crimes last year and awaiting sentencing, Mr. Taibs is one of a small group of builders responsible for transforming parts of the polluted Hudson River waterfront into a bustling hub of residential and commercial activity.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams and James Smith, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York office, are scheduled to announce the charges at a news conference Friday morning.
The charges are not the senator’s first encounter with the law. In 2015, Mr Indicted in New Jersey Federal prosecutors called a scheme between the senator and a wealthy ophthalmologist to trade political favors for gifts worth more than $1 million, including luxury vacations in the Caribbean and campaign contributions. Mr. Menendez’s corruption trial ended in a mistrial in November 2017, after the jury said it could not reach a verdict.
Judge then Mr. Menendez was acquitted of several charges and the Justice Department dismissed others.
As Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Menendez is one of Washington’s most influential Democrats.
He climbed up there with speed, a complete survivor.
The son of Cuban immigrants, he rose to power in Hudson County, a notoriously hard-hitting political precinct in northern New Jersey, where he began serving on the school board in Union City as a 20-year-old college student. At 32, he was mayor. Donning a bulletproof vest to testify against mafia members, Mr. Menendez won the position and a mentor, William V. Musto is the city’s mayor accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a contractor hired to build schools.
Mr. Menendez served in the state legislature and Senate before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Immediately after taking the oath of office in the Senate, Mr. Menendez faced a federal investigation led by Chris Christie, then the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, over payments to a nonprofit group that rented a home he owned. It went nowhere, but shadowed him for nearly six years.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Kirsten Noyes Research contributed.
