The stunning indictment charging New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and his wife, along with a middleman Wael “Will” Hana, of conspiring with Egypt’s government is one of the most serious to penetrate to be filed against a sitting Senator. Though they pleaded not guilty to the foreign agent charge in October and the bribery and extortion charges in September, the story prosecutors have laid out seems straight out of a mafia movie.
That’s why they call it the Soprano State.
According to prosecutors, officials representing Egypt wanted an American’s help with financing and arms sales, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Menendez and his then-girlfriend Nadine Arslanian as the prime associates. Over dinners, they worked out the details. In exchange for Menendez’s assistance, Hana allegedly promised the future Mrs. Menendez a cushy job, later adding on the infamous cash and gold bars found in a raid.
Why Menendez? Well, from his perch in the Senate, he has enormous knowledge but also sway over which US allies get money and which ones do not. In 2017, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee canceled $65.6 million in military financing. Prosecutors accuse him of sharing sensitive information with his then-girlfriend and Egyptian officials through her. They also say he secretly helped draft a letter for the Egyptian government aimed at persuading his fellow senators to release $300 million in aid, among other claims of him essentially being a foreign agent.
These details and others form the basis of what may be a novel prosecution. The foreign agent charge specifically is derived from the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It requires anyone lobbying in the US on behalf of a foreign government or entity to register with the DOJ at the penalty of a felony. FARA exempts sitting Senators and some other officials, but prosecutors are using a related statute that makes it a criminal offense for a “public official” of the US “to be or to act as an agent of a foreign principal required to register under FARA.”
Despite Menendez proclaiming his innocence, the hitherto unprecedented use of this statute suggests an aggressive case to prove otherwise.
