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Menendez: Anti Rwanda US Senator charged with brazen bribery, taking cash and gold served DRC's Tshisekedi too
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.”