Hundreds of personal texts and calls between Senator Bob Menendez and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Nadine about dinners with Egyptian officials and late mortgage payments highlight the pair’s bad financial situation.
They were brought up in court to highlight the ‘desperate’ financial situation embattled Menendez and his now-wife Nadine experienced.
The prosecution is seemingly trying to link Nadine and her husband’s need for cash to the gifts and gold bars allegedly bestowed upon them by the businessmen co-defendants in the case.
The Mendendez’s mortgage payments – revealed in communications read to jurors by an FBI special agent – are allegedly part of the bribery scheme.
Nadine’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home was in danger of being foreclosed after she missed almost $20,000 in mortgage payments in 2019, before she and the senator wed.
But prosecuting attorneys say her cash conundrum was solved by Egyptian American businessman Wael ‘Will’ Hana, who forked over the dough to save the home.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., arrives at a federal court in New York on Thursday morning
It’s the same abode the New Jersey Democrat later moved into after he married Nadine in 2020 and that was raided by the FBI as part of their investigation.
They say Hana’s favor was repaid by Menendez in the form of help securing a lucrative contract for Hana’s halal meat business with the Egyptian government.
After helping Nadine, Hana and the senator’s wife had a falling out.
‘Can you believe Will said he does not need me to make appointments with you to go see you at your office and dinner with you,’ Nadine texted Menendez. ‘The man has gone crazy after everything I have done for him!!!!!’
She also told attorney Howard Dorian, who had represented Hana, that she was ‘quite disappointed’ with the halal mogul.
Nadine and Bob Menendez together at a dinner honoring French President Emmanuel Macron
During an FBI raid of the couple’s home, authorities found 13 gold bars
During the raid, authorities found $480,000 in cash spread around the home
‘Wael asked me for a very important dinner and meetings in Washington for next week Monday which I agreed to among other things and he still has not delivered on any of his promises,’ Nadine texted Dorian.
In turn, Dorian texted an associate ‘It’s really important that we make sure Nadine stays happy because she’s not. She’s going to cancel the meetings that Wael has set up with Senator Menendez for Monday.’
‘It is extremely important that we keep Nadine happy,’ Dorian texted one of the businessmen involved in the scheme.
And Nadine’s role in the alleged bribery scheme far surpassed just connecting Hana and her husband, say prosecutors.
She also allegedly lobbied her lawmaker husband, at Hana’s request, to expressly forward the goals of Egypt.
At the time, Menendez held the powerful role of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Some cash was found stored in a boot
The alleged bribe payments were strewn about the couple’s home
Tons of cash was also found stowed away in bags
Wael Hana arrives at federal court for his bribery trial in connection with Sen. Menendez
New Jersey Developer Fred Daibes is also implicated in the bribery scheme
‘In your speech, could you please say Egypt now in the right direction with the new government now. ‘With the International Monetary Fund and all the new developments, new capital and the new Suez Canal. Egypt is important to the United States,’ she texted her hubby.
Prosecutors further revealed how deeply she was connected to Egyptian officials.
‘I am in meeting with head of intelligence for Egypt. Soo sorry,’ she messaged someone trying to reach her.
Menendez and his wife Nadine are both charged in a bribery scheme featuring gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a luxury Mercedes-Benz.
Hana and another businessman, Fred Daibes, who are co-defendants in the case, are accused of providing such luxuries.
All have pleaded not guilty and Nadine will face a separate trial later this summer as she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
Jose Uribe, a third businessman tied up in the case, has plead guilty and is expected to testify in the case.
The Democratic senator’s team has tried to distance himself from Nadine in the ongoing bribery trial.
Menendez’s defense attorneys have claimed the 13 gold bars and the $480,000 in cash stored in clothing, footwear and a safe discovered by the FBI during a raid on the couple’s home were there because of the senator’s trauma from the squandering of his family’s fortune before he was born in 1954.
They argue his fear of going without stems from his parent’s belongings getting seized in Castro’s Cuba more than half a century ago.
Sen. Bob Menendez spotted arriving home holding a box of hemorrhoid cream at his in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home
The brand, RectiCare, is an over the counter medication
The trial has resumed Thursday, with Menendez arriving at court around 9 a.m.
Last week, Menendez was spotted arriving at the couple’s New Jersey home with a container of hemorrhoid cream.
It is unclear if the ailment developed because of the long hours the Democrat has been forced to remain seated throughout the trial.
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