The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez held a meeting in his Washington office in 2018 with Egyptian diplomats and the New Jersey businessman at the center of a federal investigation, Wael Hana.
Menendez’s now-wife, Nadine Arslanian, was present at that meeting; the Wall Street Journal published a photo of the senator with Arslanian, Hana, and the diplomats.
In May 2019, Egyptian officials gave Hana a contract to certify halal meat exports. That contract, published reports have suggested, is at the center of the Justice Department’s probe.
NBC News reported last week that the investigators are reviewing whether Menendez and Arslanian took gifts from Hana. The New York Times corroborated the NBC story.
“IS EG Halal was awarded its Halal certification contract with Egypt without any assistance whatsoever from Senator Menendez or any other U.S. public official. Nor is there any evidence that the contract was awarded based upon bribery or corruption in Egypt – and nothing like that has ever even been alleged. Moreover, IS EG Halal has performed flawlessly under the contract without any issues or complaints,” said Amelia Fogg, a spokesperson for Hana. “Any allegations about cars, apartments, cash, and jewelry being provided by anyone associated with ISEG Halal to Senator Menendez or his wife at all, let alone in exchange for any kind of favorable treatment are totally without basis.”
This story was updated at 12:04 PM with a comment from Fogg.