DAY TWENTY-TWO

A top foreign policy advisor to Bob Menendez told a jury that plans for his visit to Egypt and Qatar in 2021 got “weird” after he insisted that the Egyptian government become involved in the trip.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The government is expected to rest its case this week, followed by Menendez’s lawyers calling their own witnesses.

DAYS SINCE THE INDICTMENT: 275

DAYS SINCE MENENDEZ’S LAST CRIMINAL TRIAL ENDED: 2,410

MISSED VOTES: 34
There were no votes in the Senate today.

And in case you’re keeping track: it’s been 43 years and 52 days since a United States Senator from New Jersey was last convicted of accepting a bribe.

WHO IS SARAH ARKIN? After three years working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Arkin joined Menendez’s staff as a foreign policy advisor in 2016. She moved to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as policy director in 2018 and became deputy staff director in April 2023. After Menendez’s indictment cost him the chairmanship of the committee nearly seven months later, the new chairman, Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), shifted her to senior professional staff member with a $5,400 salary bump. Arkin is a former U.S. Department of State staffer in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau.

WEIRD BOB MENENDOVIC
— Sen. Bob Menendez’s Egypt, Qatar trip planning got ‘weird,’ Senate staffer recalls at bribery trial from Associated Press’ Larry Neumeister: “A Senate staffer testified Monday at a bribery trial that planning for Sen. Bob Menendez’s 2021 trip to Egypt and Qatar got “weird” after the Democrat directed that Egypt be included in the process. Sarah Arkin, a senior staffer with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, testified as a government witness at a trial over bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and cash allegedly paid to the senator in return for benefits he supposedly delivered to three New Jersey businessmen from 2018 to 2022. Among favors he allegedly carried out, one included helping Egyptian officials in exchange for one businessman gaining a monopoly on the certification that meat sent to Egypt met Islamic dietary requirements. Then, prosecutors say, he aided a prominent New Jersey real estate developer by acting favorably to Qatar’s government so the businessman could score a lucrative deal with a Qatari investment fund.”|

GOLD BARS ALLEGEDLY CHANGED HIS POSITION
— Sen. Menendez held ‘weird’ secret meetings with Egyptian officials, Senate staffer testifies by New Jersey Monitor’s Dana Filippo: “‘A critical part of my job is preparing him for those meetings,’ Arkin said. ‘I didn’t know exactly who he was talking to or what information he had or didn’t have or who he might want to meet or where information was coming from.’ Prosecutors say that was intentional. They allege New Jersey’s senior senator, a Democrat, flouted normal protocols because he had an illicit deal with his friend and co-defendant Wael Hana, who gave him cash and gold bars in exchange for the senator currying favor with Egyptian officials so that they would grant Hana a lucrative monopoly on exporting halal meat there. Under questioning by prosecutor Daniel Richenthal, Arkin testified that Menendez had always been an outspoken critic of Egypt because of its dismal human rights record. But in the spring of 2019, he told Arkin he wanted to be more quiet and private in expressing his humanitarian concerns about Egypt and instructed her to soften a letter she’d drafted calling out the country’s mistreatment and detention of critics and other affronts to democracy, Arkin testified.”

LESS WITNESSES, PLEASE
— Staffer testifies that Sen. Menendez changed his stance on Egyptian government after meetings from News 12’s Chris Keating: “The prosecution is expected to wrap up its case this week. The defense will then take over. Attorneys for Menendez are planning to call two dozen witnesses. Judge Sidney Stein asked attorneys to reduce that number. Stein took a moment to reprimand the Defense for taking their time when it came to handing over information about their witnesses to the government.”

MAYBE HE WANTED TO SEE HOW A HANDWRITING-TO-TEXT APP WORKED?
— As Menendez changed approach to Egypt, staff found actions ‘unusual’ and ‘weird’ from POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: “In 2019, Arkin said the senator told her he wanted to be less publicly critical of the country and do more through private conversations. The remarks were apparently prompted by a letter she’d drafted for the senator to sign that would have urged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to respect human rights and keep his pledge to leave office after a second term in 2022. He remains in power. One of the earliest incidents Arkin testified to was in March 2018, when the senator handed another staffer an invitation he’d written for two men to visit his office. The invitation was to the Egyptian defense attaché in Washington, Maj. Gen. Khaled Shawky, and Wael “Will” Hana, an Egyptian American businessperson from New Jersey. The handwritten draft invite, Arkin said, was an “unusual” move. When the meeting happened, on March 13, the senator’s relatively new girlfriend, Nadine, also attended.”

NEW JERSEY’S INTERESTING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PROSECUTORS AND POLITICIANS
— Can NJ elected officials influence criminal cases? Menendez trial tests question from the Bergen Record’s Charlie Stile: “The trial of Sen. Robert Menendez has shed a light on the gray area between politics and New Jersey law enforcement. Although the trial aims to determine whether Menendez is guilty or innocent of sweeping bribery and abuse-of-power charges arrayed against him, it has also raised a significant question: When is it appropriate for an elected person of power to discuss the status of a criminal investigation with the state’s top law enforcement officer? Is an apparent innocuous phone call from a person of political power to a top law enforcement official a less-than-subtle form of pressure? How often does this happen? Is this really the troubling, back-channel way politicians go about flexing their muscle with criminal matters of concern in New Jersey?”

* Formula 1 Tickets and a Fixation on Gold: Menendez Trial Takeaways

* Bob Menendez’s privacy problem

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