NEW YORK — A Senate official testified in a bribery trial that planning Senator Bob Menendez The 2021 trip to Egypt and Qatar turned “weird” after the Democrat ordered Egypt to be included in the process, a Senate staffer testified Monday.
Sarah Arkin, a senior staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, testified as a government witness in a trial over bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and cash allegedly paid to the senator in exchange for benefits he allegedly delivered to three New York businessmen. Jersey from 2018 to 2022.
Among the favors he allegedly performed, one included helping Egyptian authorities in exchange for a businessman obtaining a monopoly on certifying that meat sent to Egypt met Islamic dietary requirements.
Then, prosecutors say, he helped a prominent New Jersey real estate developer by acting favorably to the Qatari government so the businessman could secure a lucrative deal with a Qatari investment fund.
In addition to charges of bribery, fraud, extortion and obstruction of justice, Menendez is also accused of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
Menéndez, 70, and two businessmen who allegedly paid him bribes have pleaded not guilty to the charges. A third testified earlier in the trial as it entered its seventh week. When Menendez was charged last fall, he held the powerful position of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he abandoned soon after.
In his testimony, Arkin said Menendez asked Senate staff to contact an individual at the Egyptian embassy they did not know as they were planning the week-long trip to the two countries, although such excursions were usually planned by the State Department and by the USA. authorities.
Although foreign embassies were routinely notified of any U.S. lawmakers traveling their way, Arkin described it as unusual for a U.S. senator’s trip to be planned in conjunction with a foreign embassy.
Later, Arkin said, she was told that Menendez was “very upset” after being notified that two Egyptians, including Egypt’s ambassador, had complained that she had notified Egyptian authorities that Menendez would not meet with the president of the Egypt during the trip “under no circumstances”. .” She said she was told the senator did not want her to travel.
She testified that she told Menendez that the allegation that she told someone he would not meet with the president of Egypt was “absolutely false” and that she would never use harsh language like “under any circumstances” even if he refused to meet someone. .
Arkin said another Senate staffer working on planning the trip wrote to her that “this whole Egypt thing is really weird.”
“It was weird,” she said. Arkin said she was “not an idiot” and “wouldn’t have phrased anything that way,” saying the senator would not meet with a foreign president of a nation important to the United States “under any circumstances.”
Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Richenthal, Arkin also mentioned that Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, was “trying to be involved in the planning” and had “a lot of opinions” about what she wanted to do during the trip.
Nadine Menendez also pleaded not guilty in the case, but her trial was postponed so she could recover from breast cancer surgery.
Leaving court on Monday, Menendez said Arkin could have traveled if she wanted, but she “chose not to go.”
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