American Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, already prosecuted with his wife by the courts in a bribery affair involving Egypt and Qatar, pleaded not guilty on Monday to obstructing an investigation, a new charge imposed in early March by a New York judge.
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This is the third appearance of this veteran of American politics for preliminary hearings before the Manhattan federal court which has been investigating his case for months.
His trial for alleged corruption will take place on May 6 in New York.
“Once again, not guilty,” replied the Democratic Party parliamentarian to the judge who read him his indictment, noted an AFP journalist.
His wife Nadine Menendez, alongside him, also pleaded not guilty.
The senator is now facing 16 charges, including corruption, influence peddling for the benefit of Qatar and Egypt, acting as an agent of Cairo and, since March 5, obstructing Justice.
Mr. Menendez allegedly asked his former lawyer to mislead investigators about payments he received from other defendants in the case.
The elected Democrat had been accused at the start of the affair of having accepted with his wife between 2018 and 2022 “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes, in cash or gold bars in particular, in exchange of his influence to “protect and enrich” three businessmen from his state of New Jersey opposite New York (Wael Hana, José Uribe and Fred Daibes) and to support the Egyptian government.
The 70-year-old elected official, born to Cuban parents who emigrated to the United States, has always pleaded not guilty and has remained deaf to calls for resignation emanating from his own camp, that of President Joe Biden.
However, he resigned at the end of 2023 as chairman of the very influential Foreign Affairs Committee in the Senate.
This new indictment comes as one of the three businessmen, Mr. Uribe, recently pleaded guilty to certain charges for collaborating with federal prosecutors and trying to avoid a criminal trial.
