Sen. Bob Menendez pleads not guilty to new charges

Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, pleaded not guilty to a new obstruction charge on Monday, according to multiple reports.

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The U.S. senator and his wife, Nadine, entered not guilty pleas Monday at a federal courthouse in Manhattan, The Associated Press reported. Neither spoke to reporters as they left court following the hearing.

The plea hearing was Menendez’s third since September, when authorities first charged him with accepting bribes. Officials said he and his wife accepted gold, cash, a luxury car and other more to use his power to benefit three New Jersey businessmen and the countries of Egypt and Qatar.

The new charges appear to be related to information provided by one of the businessmen charged in the scheme, former insurance broker Jose Uribe, The New York Times reported. Uribe pleaded guilty to charges earlier this month and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, admitting that he tried to bribe Menendez with a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible, according to court records and the Times.

In a superseding indictment filed in court March 5, authorities said Menendez lied to federal prosecutors through his attorneys, saying that he thought mortgage and car payments from two businessmen also charged in the case were loans and not bribes, Reuters reported.

Menendez and his co-defendants, including his wife and businessmen Wael “Will” Hana and Fred Daibes, are set to face trial beginning on May 6, according to the Times.

Since charges were first announced last year, Menendez has resisted calls for his resignation. He has since stepped down from his high-profile position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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