Menendez maintains he’s ‘only been loyal to one country’ amid FARA charge

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said on Monday that he has “been loyal to only one country in the world for 50 years,” rejecting federal prosecutors’ claim that he has been acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Egypt.

Asked by reporters in the Capitol on Monday about the superseding indictment, which accuses him of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act to work on behalf of the government of Egypt, the embattled senator described the latest charge as “outrageous.”

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“If you look at my history on Egypt, the charges are as outrageous as they are absurd,” Menendez said. “Now, if the press would do their work and look at that history, they would say it’s incongruent with what the government is saying, number one.”

“Number two is the government is engaged in primitive hunting, which is where you continue to hound your prey until it’s exhausted and you kill it,” he continued. “I’m not going to succumb to that. 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.”

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.

Alex Brandon/AP

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 later this month.

The superseding indictment prompted Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the first senator to call for Menendez’s resignation after the initial bribery charges, to urge the Senate to expel the New Jersey Democrat. The effort has not taken off though, and other members have not joined Fetterman in backing expulsion.

The expulsion effort would require two-thirds support to pass in the Senate, which is unlikely given Democrats’ small majority and guaranteed opposition from the GOP. The fact that 20 Senate Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have said Menendez deserves the opportunity to fight the charges serves as another blockade.

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Pressed on Monday about Fetterman’s call to have him removed, Menendez replied, “Sen. Fetterman can do whatever he wants. He just got here. It’s interesting that he’s so possessed with this issue.”

As for whether he’ll seek reelection, Menendez said he would address that more formally “when it’s time.” For now, though, “we are, for all intents and purposes, on the path to doing it.”