In the next year of , U. S.  , Sen.  , Robert Menendez’s federal fraud trial, after the , bags of cash , and golden bars had been entered into information, jurors listened attentively to a phone his wife left back in 2018, when the pair were still dating.
” Hi, it’s me, calling my very handsome senator” , , Nadine Arslanian , said on the recording. ” I have a favour to beg you”.
Menendez and a certain Egyptian common were very important during an approaching official meeting in , Washington, Nadine said. Even just a few days may be” good for the connections between , Egypt , and , the United States, among other things”.
What additional issues? It’s a long history, one prosecutors are methodically waving in a U. S. district court in , Manhattan, where New Jersey’s top senator faces his next bribery trial.
Federal regulators say Menendez and his wife took cash, gold, a Mercedes and various luxury items from , a small army of wealthy , New Jersey  , businessmen , to help them land talks in , Egypt , and , Qatar , through the president’s effect on the powerful , Senate Foreign Relations Committee, among other political benefits.
The allegations are all over the place, from your typical Jersey capers, like meddling in criminal investigations involving rich friends, to landing one of Nadine’s pals a lucrative contract involving meat exports to , Egypt.
Menendez, a Democrat, is now the first sitting , U. S.  , congressman to face charges of conspiring to , act as a foreign agent, violating a federal law meant to ensure , U. S.  , officials act in the nation’s interest.
He has denied wrongdoing, claiming federal prosecutors are out to get him after , his last corruption case , ended in mistrial. So, too, has his wife — who is being tried separately later this summer after she , undergoes cancer treatment.
‘ BLAME MY WIFE ‘ DEFENSE
The Menendez marriage is now at the center of , U. S.  , Attorney for the Southern District Damian Williams ‘ case against the third- term senator from , New Jersey,  , whose influence reverberated , from his political home base in , Hudson County , to the halls of power in , Washington.
Prosecutors say Nadine acted as” a go- between” who “passed messages to Menendez” and collected many of the bribes from their wealthy friends in order to keep the senator’s hands clean.
Lawyers for Bob claim that Nadine, who is” a beautiful and tall international woman” who speaks four languages, was “hiding her financial difficulties from Bob” and kept him “in the dark about her business dealings.
It’s been dubbed the” Blame My Wife” defense, a bold strategy in any marriage and any court room, let alone the corruption trial of a sitting , U. S.  , senator tasked with handling sensitive government intel.
Federal prosecutors are n’t buying it.
In order to make their case, they have taken jurors into the couple’s most intimate spaces, taking them on a thorough, Zillow-style tour of their home, and showing them hundreds of photos of photos from an FBI search that resulted in 13 gold bars stashed in closets, bags, and boxes.
They submitted pages upon pages of private romantic texts, emails, and voice messages over the course of hours of testimony this week, and they have also slid into the couple’s DMs and captured the receipts as criminal evidence.
The senator, his wife, and a trio of wealthy entrepreneurs whose friendships with the Menendez couple spanned their business ties to Nadine were revealed in the new records.
Two of those men — , Edgewater , developer , Fred Daibes , and , Wael Hana, an Egyptian- American businessman — are on trial alongside , Bob Menendez.
They have also denied wrongdoing, saying prosecutors mistook generous gifts for bribes, effectively” criminalizing friendship”.
Both previously married international travelers with a well- documented , taste for the high life, Bob and , Nadine Menendez , wed in 2020 after Menendez, not shy about public displays of affection,  , proposed through song.
Privately, their language was equally effusive, exchanging heart emojis and French- inflected pet names like “mon fiance parfait” and “mon amour de la vie” between phones.
” Good luck at the meeting my love”, said one message from Nadine to her husband. ” Thank you for checking in on me, you make me feel so special.
Nadine Menendez also provided her husband with sporadic updates about her entrepreneurial endeavors, whose prior experience included founding a professional sports management company.
After Bob helped her punch up her bona fides while she applied for a position on a nonprofit board, she wrote in one text,” Mon amour de la vie, merci for my resume.”
What line of work was  , Nadine Menendez , in? Strategic international business consulting, a service she offered through a company called, appropriately,  , Strategic International Business Consultants.
Still confused? Let her explain.
” Every time I’m a middle person for a deal I am asking to get paid”, she texted a relative, court documents show,” and this is my consulting company”.
Selling access to her wealthy husband is suggested by the prosecution.
THE HALAL HUSTLE
In , April 2019, the Menendez home in , Englewood Cliffs , had suffered damage from a flood, and Nadine was upset that her longtime- friend and sometimes- business partner, Will, was n’t helping fix her floors.
On the way to the airport, you texted me without wasting a minute. she wrote in a text message. ” It’s Monday. You promised that the man would walk up to the carpet. But I’m sure you’ll be able to answer the phone about next Monday’s meetings and dinner”.
Wael Hana, known to friends as Will, did not reply. He was away in , Egypt , on business and preparing for a meeting with the senator and some business associates.
Hana had recently entered the import-export sector after running a trucking company that had recently suffered damage from Hurricane Sandy.
Specifically, meat. More specifically, halal beef.
Hana was making meetings around the , U. S., looking to break into the business of certifying beef set for export as halal, or slaughtered under Islamic traditions, court records show.
His company,  , IS EG Halal Certified Inc., was based in an , Edgewater , office complex owned by , Fred Daibes, the” Gold Coast” developer known for glitzy projects along the , Hudson , riverfront and a codefendant in the scheme.
Hana also hired his friend, Nadine, writing her consulting company several$ 10, 000 checks, court records show,
Not long after he got into the business, Hana , obtained an exclusive contract , with the Egyptian government to certify beef headed there from the , U. S.
Previously, four companies around the , U. S.  , could certify beef headed for export, but these days? If you want to send your beef to , Egypt, you better go through Hana.
How did he obtain the lucrative deal? By Hana’s telling, through pure Jersey hustle.
Most Muslim- majority countries require such certifications to sell imported meat, making halal certification big business, and Hana, who is Christian but was born in , Egypt, had a family background in food wholesaling.
Prosecutors argue Menendez worked the levers of power in , Washington , for his wife’s wealthy friend to corner the market in exchange for a no- show job.
When a top , U. S.  , agricultural official raised questions about the meat monopoly, Menendez called the official,  , Ted McKinney, and , told him , to “quit interfering with my constituent”, McKinney testified this week.
Menendez’s lawyers say that’s the usual work of a senator — advocating for a business in his backyard. According to the prosecution, Menendez allegedly tried to get Hana to pay his wife more money.
The , now- infamous , gold bars? Some came from Hana, prosecutors say. So did the Mercedes convertible, mortgage payments, those new carpets after the flood and an elliptical exercise machine, among other goods.
Hana’s attorney,  , Lawrence Lustberg, told jurors Will and Nadine were old friends, “like brother and sister”, who exchanged gifts and favors.
When Will’s business suffered from financial difficulties, Nadine aided him, and he provided loans to her when she experienced financial difficulties.
” There was never, ever, a time when , Will Hana , provided things of value to , Senator Menendez , directly, or through his girlfriend and later wife Nadine, in exchange for an official action”, Lustberg said at the trial’s opening. ” It just did n’t happen”.
Nadine privately complained to Bob and others about Hana, claiming that he now believes Hana to be the king of the world and has both nations wrapped around his pinky.
Can you believe that Will said he does n’t need to meet with you to visit you at your place of business and have dinner with you? Nadine texted her husband in , March 2019.
The man has gone crazy because of everything I’ve done for him! “!
” He is crazy”, her husband replied.
Prosecutors say the Menendez couple funneled sensitive , U. S.  , government information from Bob’s senate office to Nadine and on to Hana, who passed it along to Egyptian officials.
” Tell Will I am going to sign off this sale to , Egypt , today”, Bob texted Nadine in , July 2018, providing a tally of thousands of target practice rounds and tank ammunition in exchange for$ 99 million. He also passed along details about the number of American and Egyptian citizens working at the , U. S.  , embassy in , Cairo.
Menendez’s lawyers say he never shared any information that was n’t either public or soon to be public. Still, the Egyptian officials were pleased with the intel.
After Hana shared the information over WhatsApp,  , Khaled Shawky, an Egyptian military official and diplomat, replied with a thumbs- up emoji.
” Any time”, Hana replied. ” People should repay the kindness”.
The trial is expected to last several more weeks, with testimony still to come from a third , New Jersey  , businessman,  , Jose Uribe, who has pleaded guilty to bribing the Menendez couple and is expected to take the stand against them.
Menendez has been largely abandoned by his fellow , Democrats , but , may mount an independent bid , this year to keep his seat in the , Senate , if he is “exonerated” at trial.
He has not indicated whether he will stand.
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