Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife Nadine have been indicted on bribery charges, according to the Department of Justice. 

The indictment comes after U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams opened a corruption investigation last October into Menendez, who has been in the Senate since 2006 and is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

“A press event will be held today at 11:00 a.m. to announce the unsealing of an indictment charging Robert Menendez, U.S. Senator from New Jersey, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, with bribery offenses in connection with their corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen,” the DOJ said in a statement.

Menendez faces charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.

The indictment says that Menendez and his wife had a corrupt relationship with New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes, who allegedly gave the senator bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to the DOJ, the bribes were intended to protect the businessmen and to benefit Egypt. 

“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the indictment said. Federal authorities reportedly found gold bars and cash stuffed throughout the senator’s home that they traced back to the businessmen Menendez allegedly worked with. 

“Over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe — was discovered in the home,” the indictment said. Photos included in the indictment included pictures of gold bars and hundred dollars bills that had been stuffed in clothing.

Indictment.

Menendez is also accused of ghost writing a letter to other senators to urge them to support to end a hold on $300 million in military aid to Egypt, a letter that was reportedly written in coordination with his wife and the businessmen in question. Other aspects of the indictment focus in on Menendez’s involvement with IS EG Halal, a business that prosecutors say was used to funnel bribery payments and one of the businessman’s alleged payments for a Mercedes Benz used by Nadine Menendez.

Menendez has faced multiple scandals during his time in the Senate, and has previously been indicted over bribery accusations. 

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In 2015, Menendez was indicted on bribery charges for allegedly accepting “luxury vacations, golf outings, campaign donations and expensive flights” from Florida physician Salomon Melgen in exchange for political favors. A federal jury in Florida convicted Melgen in April of “67 charges for operating what prosecutors called a massive scheme that robbed Medicare out of as much as $105 million,” the Palm Beach Post reported. Menendez was never convicted after his time in court ended in a mistrial. 

Prosecutors began investigating Menendez when they were tipped off in 2012 that Menendez was allegedly having sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.