Cash and gold in exchange for political favors, the allegations against a sitting u. S. Senator are damning. Nearly 500,000 stuffed in envelopes, a mercedesbenz, even gold bars, the gifts allegedly given to senator bob menendez and his wife. New video of ukraine on the attack after more than a year at war. This team they confirm a successful hit on a russian ship. And more workers hit the picket lines in dozens more locations. This could impact you if your car needs to be repaired. Welcome to the lead. Im pamela brown in for jake tapper. We start with senator bob menendez accused in a sweeping indictment today charged with accepting bribes, pressuring a u. S. Official and spilling sensitive u. S. Information to benefit a foreign government. The indictment lays out how federal agents raided menendez home last summer finding a stash of gold bars, nearly 500,000 in cash stuffed inside envelopes and a gifted mercedes convertible. Menendez wife is also charged. According to the indictment she was paid for little to no work. Also named in the indictment three new jersey businessmen. Menendez was charged in 2015 in corruptionrelated charges, but was acquitted due to a hung jury. He denies any wrongdoing. We have the details on the shocking charges with links from new jersey to d. C. To egypt. Whats next for one of the highest ranking senators in the United States . Reporter indicted again. Senator bob menendez facing Corruption Charges for the second time in ten years. Prosecutors announcing a threecount indictment against the senator and his wife over their dealings with three new jersey associates starting in at least 2018. The senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for Senator Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen. Reporter the alleged bribes include more than 550,000 in cash hidden in the senators home and safe deposit box, a mercedesbenz, and gold bars worth tens of thousands of dollars. The indictment alleges the Senate ForeignRelations Committee charge provided sensitive u. S. Government information and took steps that aided the government of egypt. Senator menendez was doing those things for certain people, the people who were bribing him. Reporter the senator issued a defiant statement. I have been falsely accused before because i refuse to back down to the Powers That Be and the people of new jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize i was innocent. Menendez has long maintained his innocence telling cnn in april this inquiry will end up in absolutely nothing. Reporter the senator faced similar Corruption Charges in 2015. He fought off conspiracy, bribery and other fraud charges related to political favors. To those who were digging my political grave, i know who you are. Reporter that case ended in a mistrial and all charges against the senator being dropped. In this latest case he remains defiant saying he wont be distracted by baseless ak indi accusations. We reached out to attorneys for the three businessmen. We have not heard back. If convicted of the most serious charges, they could face up to 20 years in prison. This investigation is going. Thank you so much. Lets go to cnns tom foreman. Walk us through the egypt part of this and the position senator bob menendez found himself in. When you look at this, he had big titles and he was the right person in the right place if you wanted influence. The senior u. S. Senator from new jersey at the top of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee. At the time egypt was one of the largest recipients of u. S. Military aid. Good person to know if youre in the egyptian government. The indictment suggests the connection was built through his wife nadine who he started dating in 2018, married in 2010. The Indictment Talks about her being a conduit from egyptian contacts to this powerful senator. Pam . How exactly did he help egypt according to the indictment . He denies it all. Says he hasnt done anything wrong. We talked about military aid. Egypt is one of the biggest recipients in the world, especially in this period of time, billions of dollars at stake. In one case, 300 million in aid they were looking for according to the indictment. Not only did he have meetings with military officials and intelligence officials off the record, he also according to the Indictment Ghost wrote a letter on behalf of egypt to his fellow senators as if egypt was writing it. Beyond that the indictment says he shared Sensitive Information about the u. S. Embassy staff in cairo. At one point there was a deal struck with an Egyptian Company to handle all the certification of meat sent to the United States from egypt. It was a monopoly granted there. According to the indictment, he stepped forward to defend that deal which was defending a deal that was one of these people that was allegedly kicking back money to his wife and him, special favors. Beyond that, there was a dam project that involved egypt, ethiopia and japan. The indictment says he kicked in a letter pushing, saying, this deal needs to go through. Again, would seem mysterious if there wasnt Something Else going on. Through all this, he says he did nothing wrong despite the photographs, despite the evidence they have against him. He says he and his wife did nothing wrong in all of this and, yet, the prosecutors are saying look at the position he was in. Look at the evidence we have and these ties to egypt in particular where it would seem if you agree with the indictment, that the interest of egypt was being represented in some fashion by this u. S. Senator. Pam . Tom, thank you so much. With all that in mind that tom laid out, lets have our next discussion with jennifer rodgers, a federal prosecutor, along with jamal jaffer. Jennifer, lets kick it off with you. You worked for the Southern District of new york. In comparison to the 2015 charges against menendez which included bribery allegations, how do these charges laid out in todays indictment stack up . Its a Different Office bringing them, pam. The evidence is much stronger. Most importantly facts are very different. In the prior case the problem was i think this is why jurors Dizzy Sagreed is because these were trips that they were taking. A lot of the jurors thought maybe those trips were taken because they were friends, not because of what menendez actually was doing for the person bribing him. Here its totally transactional. Theres a Treasure Trove full of texts and emails of people asking him what they needed to do and some of those things he did and they got cash, gold a mercedes. The transaction is played out clearly, making it easier for prosecutors to prove the case. Prosecutors went out of their way to try to illustrate the official acts that they allege menendez took in exchange for the gifts, the money, these gold bars you see pictures of. Jamal, with that in month, he allegedly aided the government of egypt, yet menendez said prosecutors misrepresented the work of a congressional office. What do you think . Well, thats exactly right. This is the challenge, pam. Hes going to argue that all the things he did were what senators do all the time. They look into these deals, assess whether theyre in the interest of the United States, in the interest of their home state, in the interest of the Government Agencies involved and whether it makes sense for the u. S. relationship. The u. S. Has had a long relationship with egypt, endeven during the coup that took place in egypt. Senator menendez is going to argue this is normal course. The challenge for the prosecutor is to show, look, he took all this cash. The problem is as jennifer and you were talking about, they brought charges against him in the past. These charges are different, but menendez got 10 out of 12 jurors to believe that he wasnt guilty. Hes proven he can withstand this. Well see what happens. Lets dig in deeper on to that. The indictment lays out all this evidence that prosecutors gathered to show the gifts that he allegedly received along with his wife. The indictment includes the mention of fingerprints as part of verifying that these that this evidence they collected, the money, the gold bars, was a direct gift from the three businessmen. Walk us through that, jennifer. So hes going to have a hard time getting out of this. One of the reasons is even if these are things he would have done anyway, even if hes pro egypt by his own policy, even if these are things he would have done in the normal course, if he also was getting this money and that was a tiny part of why he was doing it then hes guilty of these offenses. Its going to be very hard to say that that wasnt part of the reason he was doing it. It seems like a very strong case to me, so different from the first case. Of course the jury wont know anything about the first case. They wont know he almost got off on these charges. I want to follow up on what you said. You said these gifts tied directly to these businessmen. Walk us through how prosecutors are laying out this case that these gifts, the money and the gold bars they collected through execution of a Search Warrant is tied to these businessmen and is part of the bribery scheme. Some of it is through the Text Messages and emails. The wife was in Constant Contact with these people talking about what it was they wanted menendez to do. They gave her a noshow job. Theres paperwork related to that. She opened up a specific bank account to put the money in. Theres fingerprints of one of these men on an envelope in which some of the cash was stashed. Theres a lot of that kind of evidence, pam. Prosecutors say either the businessman or his driver according to the indictment. Do you think, jamal, that menendez can survive this . Its a tough call. I think jennifer is right. Its a strong case that the prosecutors have brought. Menendez is entitled to the Presumption Of Innocence until hes Proven Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Thats going to force the prosecutors to convince a jury theyve proven their case. Hes beaten this case before. That being said, the fact that they had surveillance on his wife, they had a wire tap in 2019, back in the early days of their relationship, before they even got married they were Su Surveilling her phone. If they can bring that evidence to bear and tie this money to events that happened, its going to be a tough case for the prosecution and a tough case for menendez to beat. Well be watching this closely. Thank you both for bringing your legal analysis to the forefront. Senator menendez says forces behind the charges are trying to dig his political grave. Thats what he said back in 2017. How the indictment this time around could spell disaster for his democratic colleagues. Plus, the new cnn poll showing a preferred candidate dominating the 2024 race, and its not donald trump. Well be back. 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I want to talk about the immediate implications here. This is a sitting democrat up for reelection. Democrats barely hold the balance of power. How much could this indictment help republicans . Listen, its not welcome news to democrats in new jersey. New jersey is a very blue state obviously. Though we saw just in the recent governors election there it was a far narrower margin that people anticipated. The things to watch for here are what President Biden has to say about this, what Chuck Schumer is saying about this, what cory booker and governor murphy are saying about this. Im told governor murphy is going to make a statement about this in the next little bit. I know hes stepping down from the senator Foreign Relationship chairmanship, but look to see if these Democratic Power brokers are sort of giving him the arm. Thats the going to determine the fate here. Does he resign and allow the governor to appoint Somebody Else . That seems unlikely for bob menendez. Does he say hes not going to run for reelection . Hes in cycle and a contest can take place to replace him. Does he fight this out and continue to seek reelection . His Statement Released seems like that hes plan. Congressman dean phillips of minnesota is calling on menendez to resign. Heres how he put it. A member of congress who appears to have broken the law is someone who i believe should resign. I think George Santos should have resigned. In comparison to the president of the United States of which there is no evidence whatsoever hes broken the law, yet is subject to an impeachment inquiry, there is evidence here. Im disappointed and think he should resign. Phillips said menendez should be pushed out to restore faith in government. Were waiting to see what President Biden, what governor murphy says. Do you expect the calls to grow for resignation who do you expect it to be lets see how plays out in the law . The latter. Congress phillips is not somebody who is going to decide Senator Menendez fate here. Yes, bob menendez is innocent until Proven Guilty. He deserves that. Chuck schumer asserted that in his statement just now. Watch because, if it looks like bob menendez is losing the respect and support of the people of new jersey and especially democrats in new jersey, i would imagine youll see a Ratcheting Up of calls for him not to run for reelection. You cant help but compare it to show republicans are dealing with donald trump. Hes facing 91 charges and four indictments. He still has overwhelming support with Republican Voters. Do the Resignation Calls depend on whos in trouble . Depends on the popularity of whos in trouble. If donald trump wasnt as popular with voters as he is, i would imagine there would be more republicans speaking out against him. Elected officials tend to be followers, not leaders. They follow public opinion. 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