Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife charged with bribery

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife were indicted in New York on federal bribery charges for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, home mortgage payments and more as part of a “corrupt relationship” with three Garden State businessmen.

The three-count indictment alleges that the Democrat Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the government of Egypt,” and pressured a U.S. Agriculture Department official to protect a business monopoly in Egypt for one of the three businessmen.

It also accuses Menendez of using his office and influence to disrupt a criminal probe in New Jersey of a second businessman.

And, it charges that Menendez recommended that President Joe Biden nominate as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey someone whom the senator believed could be influenced by Menendez to disrupt the prosecution of the third businessman.

“This investigation is very much ongoing,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams at a press conference on the indictment of the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, as well as of the three other men: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.

“We are not done,” Williams said.

Menendez, who is up for reelection in 2024, has agreed to step down as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to the charges, according to a source close to him who spoke with NBC News.

He, Nadine and the other defendants are due to appear Wednesday morning in Manhattan federal court.

The indictment says that during a June 2022 raid on the Menendezes’ New Jersey home and a safe deposit box, federal agents found cash, gold and a luxury vehicle that were the “fruits of [the couple’s] corrupt bribery agreement” with the businessmen.

“Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe—was discovered in the home, along with over $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box,” the indictment said. “Some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints and/or DNA of Daibes or his driver,” the charging document said.

In addition to the cash, agents also seized 81.5 ounces of gold bars, which at current prices are worth about $155,000.

Menendez and Nadine are charged with three counts: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.

The three other men are charged with the first two of those counts.

Menendez in a statement adamantly denied the allegations, accused prosecutors of attacking Nadine “for the longstanding friendships” she had, and vowed to continue performing his duties as senator.

“I remain focused on continuing this important work and will not be distracted by baseless allegations,” Menendez said.

This is the second time Menendez has been indicted on federal bribery charges.

In 2015, he was hit with 14 criminal counts related to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lavish gifts and campaign donations he received from a Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen.

Melgen was later convicted of Medicare fraud and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

But the prosecution against Menendez was dropped after his trial ended in a hung jury.

The new indictment says that Menendez and his wife from at least 2018 through 2022 accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using Menendez’s power and influence as Senator” to benefit the men and Egypt.

“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job [for Nadine], a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” according to the indictment, which was issued by a grand jury.

The indictment alleges that Menendez sought to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution of Daibes in exchange for money and other items of value.

Those efforts allegedly included the senator recommending to Biden that he nominate a candidate for U.S. Attorney for New Jersey “who Menendez believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to Daibes’s case,” the indictment charges.

Biden later nominated Phillip Sellinger as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Sellinger ended up being confirmed for that post as the top federal prosecutor in the state.

CNBC has requested comment from the White House on the Menendez indictment.

Nadine’s lawyer David Schertler, in a statement to WNBC, said, “Ms. Menendez denies any wrongdoing and will defend vigorously against these allegations in court.”

A spokesman for Hana said, “We are still reviewing the charges but based upon our initial review, they have absolutely no merit.”

A lawyer for Daibes said, “We are confident that Mr. Daibes will be completely exonerated of all charges.”

The indictment says that during a June 2022 raid on the Menendezes’ New Jersey home and a safe deposit box, federal agents found cash, gold and a luxury vehicle that were the “fruits of [the couple’s] corrupt bribery agreement” with the businessmen.

“Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe—was discovered in the home, along with over $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe deposit box,” the indictment said.

“Some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints and/or DNA of Daibes or his driver,” the charging document said.

In addition to the cash, agents also seized 81.5 ounces of gold bars, which at current prices are worth about $155,000.

The non-profit advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics on Friday called for Menendez to resign.

“The stain of corruption continuously taints Menendez,” said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. “CREW has for years raised concerns about Menendez potentially selling his position, and the Senate Ethics Committee previously found serious misconduct by him.”

“The conduct outlined in today’s indictment and the evidence presented are even more damning,” Bookbinder said.

Menendez was setting up a legal defense fund in connection with the criminal probe before he was indicted, according to NBC New York.

That fund appears to be run directly by Menendez and his longtime campaign treasurer John Palumbo, according to a filing sent to the Internal Revenue Service.

The document, signed by Palumbo in July, lists Menendez as a “grantor” of the fund and the campaign treasurer as a “trustee.”

The fund in documents says it will pay “expenses in connection with legal proceedings incurred in connection with service to the U.S. Senate.”

The new indictment against Menendez comes nearly a decade after the Supreme Court began making it more difficult for federal prosecutors to win corruption cases against elected officials and others for acts related to government services.

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was convicted of corruption in 2014, only to have his conviction overturned two years later by the Supreme Court in a ruling.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court found that prosecutors had applied what justices called “a boundless” definition of what constitutes an official act.

In 2020, the Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling reversed the fraud convictions of two aides to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who played key roles in the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal.

Justice Elena Kagan in that decision wrote that Bridget Anne Kelly and William Baroni “could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws” because the scheme did not “aim to obtain money or property.”

Last year, another unanimous Supreme Court ruling tossed out the conviction of Joseph Percoco, the manager of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign, on an honest services charge.

— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Emma Kinery

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