The latest charges against U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez also have ties to the Middle East, alleging the senior senator acted as a foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government from January 2018 to at least June 2022.

The superseding indictment carries with it new penalties and moves the case from centering around public corruption to a potential national security issue.

For all the latest details, I'm joined by Northjersey.com reporter Kristie Cattafi.

Kristie hi.

Thanks for joining me again.

A lot has been happening with this case.

What's happening next, though, for Senator Menendez now that this superseding indictment has dropped?

So right now you're going to see Senator Menendez and his wife in court.

They're expected there on Wednesday morning and they're expected to do a plea.

We know last time they pled not guilty.

So we're just going to wait and see what happens on Wednesday morning.

And so remind us, he's been charged now allegedly is acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government.

What did the indictment say that he did?

So the indictment, the first in the original indictment, sheds some light on what he was doing with Egypt and with Wael Hana.

So it was about arms dealing.

It was about how many U.S. officials were in the Egypt at that time.

And the new superseding indictment did shed some more light.

It showed that Juana and Mrs. Menendez, his wife, were meeting in his office.

They were asking for him for some help with their money.

The Egyptian money that the U.S. has.

And it was being held up because of the Egyptian government and a lawsuit pertaining to a U.S. citizen that was hurt during a deal.

And right now, they asked if Menendez could help the Egyptian official after the meeting text Ana and said we can make Menendez sit comfortably if this if he helps push this through and harness that, consider it done.

Do we know the full scale of the alleged actions here and based off the reporting that you and your team have done, does it seem like there's still more to unearth?

Because if the senator was allegedly taking these actions on these specific deals?

Do we know if he was also perhaps trying to make influence allegedly on other U.S. foreign relations?

You know, we're not sure.

But the one thing they did make clear when the indictment first broke was that this is still an ongoing investigation.

So I think we're going to but we, as they showed us with the superseding indictment, they're not done.

So I think we're going to see a lot more stuff come out as the investigation continues.

Okay.

So let's just shift gears.

The last time we spoke, we were talking quite a bit about his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and the car crash, the fatal 2018 car crash that she was involved in.

Are there any new details there about what transpired?

So right now, I mean, it was five years ago.

We're still talking to family members of Mr. Koop.

That was the individual who she he hit she hit and later died.

So it's still ongoing.

We're you know, we're still getting documents.

You know, we're just basically digging up from five years ago.

But we do know right now that the prosecutor, the Bergen County Prosecutors fatal Investigation unit, when we got those documents, their tests determined that she was driving within the speed limit between 22 and 27 miles per hour.

And that's telling.

Yeah.

I mean, given the extent, obviously, Mr. Koop's death.

But there were talks about the fact that she was not drug tested, she was not given a breathalyzer and other perhaps protocol that may or may not have happened on the scene.

Right.

We know that from just the reports, nothing was issued.

I know the prosecutor's office, a lot of no comments.

But we've got a police department.

They're not issuing anything other than the documents that we've requested.

But we know from the documents that she was never tested for alcohol, for drugs.

They subpoenaed her phone records.

But again, there was no results of what that subpoena came out with.

All right.

Kristie Cattafi is a reporter with NORTHJERSEY.COM, The Bergen Record, covering Senator Menendez's indictment.

Kristie, thanks so much.

No problem.

Thank you.