Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged on September 22 with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including bars of gold bullion, to wield his power abroad and at home, The New York Times reported.

Investigators found nearly $500,000 in cash hidden in clothing and closets as well as $100,000 in gold bars in a search of Menendez’s home.

A three-count indictment depicted "a brazen plan hatched during furtive dinners, in text messages and on encrypted calls" — much of it aimed at increasing U.S. assistance to Egypt and aiding businessmen in New Jersey. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, was also accused of acting as a go-between, passing messages to an American-Egyptian businessman who maintained close connections with Egyptian military and intelligence officials, the indictment said. In one text, to an Egyptian general, the businessman referred to Menendez, who held sway over military sales, financing and other aid, as “our man.”

The corruption scheme, according to the indictment, extended beyond foreign aid, with Menendez accused of using his position to influence criminal investigations of two other New Jersey businessmen, one of whom was a long-time fund-raiser for Menendez.

Accepted cash, gold, payments, luxury car and other valuables

Governor Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, a close Democratic ally, called on Menendez to resign, an admonition that - as reported - unleashed a torrent of similar messages from political leaders throughout the state.

The prosecutor considered Menendez’s actions “inappropriate,” according to the indictment. In exchange for all those actions, the indictment said, the senator and his wife accepted cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, the luxury car and other valuable things. The day after a trip to Egypt in 2021, the indictment said, Menendez asked in an internet query “how much is one kilo of gold worth.”

“Damages public’s faith in our system of government”

The prosecutor said that Menendez’s Senate website explicitly detailed the kinds of services he would not provide because they would be improper, among them influencing private business matters and intervening in judicial issues and criminal trials.

“Constituent service is part of any legislator’s job — Senator Menendez is no different,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said, but added: “Behind the scenes, Senator Menendez was doing those things for certain people — the people who were bribing him and his wife.”

Menendez denied any criminal conduct.

The charges against Menendez and the others follow a lengthy investigation by the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in Manhattan, and they come nearly six years after his trial on unrelated claims of corruption ended with a hung jury.

James Smith, who heads the New York F.B.I. office, said Friday that the conduct detailed in the indictment “damages the public’s faith in our system of government and brings undue scorn to the honest and dedicated public servants who carry out their duties on a daily basis.”

Anti-Rwanda government stance

The 69-year-old senator from New Jersey is no stranger to Rwanda where he is known for supporting terror convict Paul Rusesabagina and calling for sanctions against the government of Rwanda over allegations that Rwanda supports the M23 rebels in North Kivu Province in eastern DRC.

Menendez has links with organisations like the Lantos Foundation, which also supported Rusesabagina.

In July 2022, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he would place a hold on U.S. security assistance to Kigali in Congress over concerns about the Rwandan government's - alleged - human rights record and role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Menendez called for a comprehensive review of U.S. policy towards Rwanda.

He said he would begin by placing a hold – a Senate procedure that prevents a motion from reaching the floor for a vote – on several million dollars in support for Rwandan peacekeepers participating in U.N. missions, according to the letter, which was leaked to media and which his office confirmed was authentic. Menendez said he feared that U.S. support for the Rwandan military while it is backing the M23 rebels in DRC would send "a troubling signal that the U.S. tacitly approves of such actions."

The M23, a Congolese rebel group fighting for the rights of its persecuted community, began a major offensive in eastern DRC in November 2021. Kinshasa immediately launched a propaganda offensive and accused Rwanda of backing M23, an allegation which Kigali denied.

Analysts observe that the actions of lobbyists such as Menendez in the US have made it nearly impossible for the plight of the Congolese Tutsi community to be heard, taken seriously and addressed.

Menendez also cited what he said were credible accusations that the Rwandan government was muzzling critics at home and targeting dissidents living outside the country.

Later, in December 2022, on the sidelines of the US-Africa summit in Washington, Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi, who had again alleged that his country was the victim of “a disguised Rwandan aggression” held talks with Menendez and his team.

“If Menendez and his wife are accused of taking bribes of gold bars, a luxury car and cash in exchange for using his outsized sway in foreign affairs to help the government of Egypt, people need to pause and just think; how much gold can a corrupt government such as Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi’s would readily offer a corrupt US Senator like Menendez? Just think about that! Tshisekedi has been paying for hundreds of mercenaries from Eastern Europe and buying lots of arms to boost his war scheme against his imagined enemy, Rwanda,” an African diplomat who preferred anonymity told The Great Lakes Eye.

"Gold bars, a luxury car and cash, from Egypt? Well, that sounds like peanuts considering what Kinshasa can offer Menendez."

Soon after their December 2022 meeting in Washington, the DRC presidency posted pictures of the delegation posing with Menendez and bragged that the Democratic Senator reiterated his support to Kinshasa for the re-establishment of peace and sustainable stability in the east of the country and the organisation of free and transparent elections throughout the national territory.

“We must act as we acted in 2012 so that Paul Kagame stops destabilising the DR Congo,” Menendez declared.

Earlier, in October 2022, Menendez had again been very critical of Kigali, declaring that “I join the United States mission to the United Nations in calling on Rwanda to stop its support to M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo” - a re-echo of comments by Robert Wood, Alternative US Representative for Special Political Affairs at the US Mission to the UN.

“Responsible for the murders of Congolese citizens and UN soldiers, the M23 and its partners merit international condemnation and must be held responsible,” Menendez declared.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame on December 14, 2022, distanced himself and his country from the insecurity crisis in eastern DRC, clarifying that “the problem was not created by Rwanda and is not a Rwandan problem. It is a Congolese problem.”