New obstruction of justice crimes were added to charges against Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife on Tuesday, alleging that they accepted gold bars, cash, and a luxury car in exchange for the senator's assistance to three businessmen.
The new charges were part of a rewritten indictment returned against the Democrat in Manhattan federal court, according to the Associated Press.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine, now face additional charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. Attorneys for Bob and Nadine Menendez, as well as the other defendants in the case, did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
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An indictment alleges that the couple conspired with three businessmen to accept bribes in exchange for the senator's assistance in projects pursued by the businessmen. Both have pleaded not guilty, as have two other businessmen.
A May trial has been scheduled.
Prosecutors now allege that Menendez arranged for his former attorney to meet with them in June and September of last year, claiming that the senator was not aware, until 2022, of a $23,000 payment made by one of the businessmen to the company that held the mortgage on Menendez's home in New Jersey, or of the money another defendant had paid toward a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
In the September conference, the prosecution claims that Menendez also gave his attorney permission to state that Menendez knew in 2022 that the payments were loans.
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Menendez "had learned of both the mortgage company payment and the car payments prior to 2022, and they were not loans, but bribe payments," according to the prosecutor's letter.
In the amended indictment, prosecutors further claimed that Nadine Menendez had her attorney mislead them into believing that the mortgage and convertible loan payments were loans last August, even though she was aware that they were actually bribes.
The couple was allegedly attempting to obstruct justice in the weeks prior to being charged with multiple crimes in September of last year, according to the new charges.
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