So far, Senator Bob Menendez has only been accused of receiving a bribe from Egypt. It has now emerged that he also accepted gifts from Qatar. Two Republican political consultants also denied lobbying on behalf of Qatar.
advertisementAs we reported in September, investigators seized cash and gold bullion worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the home of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez in New Jersey. According to the accusation, the senator in Congress secretly helped the authoritarian regime in Egypt at America's expense, as he accepted or transferred for years very large sums of money in his wife's name. He and his wife denied these accusations.
Most It turns out thatMenendez – who has been a New Jersey state senator since 2006 and was chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee – received bribes not only from Egypt, but also from Qatar. Federal prosecutors allege the senator accepted Formula 1 race tickets and other gifts from Qatar as part of a multi-year corruption scheme.
According to the indictment, Menendez accepted money from Fred Daibis, a New Jersey real estate developer, in exchange for using his influence to help Daibis obtain millions of dollars from an investment fund with ties to Qatar. According to prosecutors, the senator also “took steps to assist Qatar.”
Menendez allegedly introduced Daibes, who was seeking investment, to a member of the Qatari royal family and a director of Qatar Investment Company. While the investment fund was considering the investment, the senator made several public statements in support of the Doha government, according to the indictment.
The Democratic senator faces four conspiracy charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, racketeering and acting as a foreign agent. The politician denied all of this, but after the accusations were filed last September, he temporarily resigned from the position of Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
But Menendez is not the only Washington insider involved in the Qatargate case, which also extends to America. POLITICO a report According to two Republican political consultants who supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, they admitted in court filings Tuesday to defrauding the Justice Department over their lobbying efforts on behalf of the wealthy emirate.
Barry Bennett and Doug Watts admitted to accepting money from the Qatari government in exchange for enhancing efforts to influence US policy in the Middle East and misleading investigators about those deals.
According to Politico, there is no clear connection between the Menendez indictment and the cases of Bennett and Watts, but the simultaneous release of the charges shows the extent to which the oil-rich country is able to use its political allies in both parties to represent it. Its interests in Washington.
