New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty on Monday to 12 new felony charges alleging he tried to obstruct a federal investigation into bribery allegations.
Menendez was indicted last week on new charges including bribery and extortion. Prosecutors alleged that he led his lawyers to provide false information in interviews with investigators, including claiming that the alleged illegal bribery were loans.
This is the senator’s third appearance in court to plead not guilty to charges related to the investigation.
His wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, was also arraigned on Monday before Judge Sidney Stein in the Southern District of New York and pleaded not guilty to the new charges.
Two other co-defendants are also expected to be arraigned.
Along with Menendez and his wife, and two other co-defendants plead not guilty to conspiracy charges in October 2023 alleging that the senator conspired to act as a foreign agent of Egypt after he was indicted in September on corruption-related offenses and accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes” in exchange for the senator’s influence,
The new charges come after a fifth defendant, New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty in early March and is cooperating with prosecutors.
Menendez has maintained he is innocent since the first indictment and the other charges have ensued. He also told CNN he would not resign from the Senate in the wake of the new charges.
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