Bob Menendez skipping classified Israel briefing after foreign agent charge

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) will not attend Wednesday’s classified briefing on Israel as a result of his latest indictment accusing him of being an unregistered foreign agent for Egypt.

Federal prosecutors accused Menendez and his wife of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act to work on behalf of the government of Egypt in a superseding indictment last week. The new charge, which comes less than one month after Menendez was indicted on bribery charges, raised questions over whether the embattled senator would participate in the all-members briefing.

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The New Jersey senator told reporters on Tuesday that he decided against attending, arguing his vast knowledge of the subject matter informed him on what the United States and Israel’s response must be to Hamas’s attack.

“I made my own decision not to attend,” Menendez said. “After 30 years of doing foreign policy and [being] intimately involved with our relationship with Israel, there’s nothing I’m going to hear in a classified hearing that is going to alter my view of what needs to be done.”

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He went on to note that he wasn’t sure the briefing would be “helpful.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) confirmed on Tuesday that Menendez would not be taking part in the meeting, though he declined to say if he asked the embattled senator not to attend.

“I’ve had private conversations. I don’t get involved in what happens in them, in this kind of thing,” the top Senate Democrat said.

Menendez later spoke on the Senate floor about the need to support Israel in the wake of its war to eliminate Hamas.

“The eyes of the world are watching to see how we react to the terrorist attack Israel has suffered,” the New Jersey senator said. “Days after Hamas launched a horrific assault, kidnapping nearly 200, killing over 1,000, and injuring thousands more, the world is watching with bated breath.”

In addition to the superseding indictment, federal prosecutors have also accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, of illegally using the senator’s position as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to peddle influence with donors and benefit the Egyptian government in exchange for cash, gold bars, and other valuables.

The senator, who was required to relinquish his Foreign Relations Committee chairmanship after last month’s indictment, dismissed those charges as part of a larger “smear campaign” against him and vowed to fight them. All five of the co-defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty, and Menendez is out on a $100,000 bond.

Menendez and his wife will be arraigned on the latest charge next week. Asked about the foreign agent charge on Monday, Menendez accused the government of engaging in “primitive hunting, which is where you continue to hound your prey until it’s exhausted and you kill it.”

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“I’m not going to succumb to that,” he said. “The bottom line is that I have been loyal to only one country in the world for 50 years. It’s called the United States of America.”

The Senate has made Israel a top priority this week, with Schumer organizing and passing a bipartisan resolution condemning Hamas while organizing a larger aid package and a classified briefing. Jack Lew, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel, will have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning.