we begin with breaking news New Jersey senior US senator Bob bendeez is being hit with new federal charges tonight prosecutors are accusing Menendez of acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Egyptian government a superceding indictment filed today in Manhattan federal court alleges Menendez violated the foreign agents registration act or Farah which requires people to register with the US government if they plan to act in that Capac capacity members of Congress though are strictly barred from being an agent of a foreign government the new criminal charges come just weeks after a sweeping indictment charged Mendez and his wife of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash gold bars and a luxury car all from three New Jersey businessmen with ties to Egypt in exchange for the Senator's help and influence Menendez and the other four codefendants have pleaded not guilty to those charges the indictment also alleges Menendez who is Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee provided sensitive US Government information and took other steps that secretly aided Egypt's government for more on what this means for the case I'm joined by former Federal prosecutor Brian Whisler, Brian thanks so much for joining me uh these charges more stunning charges but acting as an agent of a foreign principal break that down for us in a big picture what that means sure happy to the relevant statute the foreign agent registration act uh known by shorthand as Farah is under the federal uh us code title 22 it's a disclosure and registration requirement for any us uh citizen or national acting on behalf of a foreign entity whether it's a government um or a corporate entity for that matter is required by law to register with the National Security division of the US justice department and there are criminal penalties for the knowing failure to do that so how serious of a charge is this for a sitting member of the United States Senate the chair co-chair of the Foreign Relations Committee according to the Indi indictment it alleges between 2018 and 20122 that the senator agreed to and took actions not just on behalf of Egypt but also on behalf of the Egyptian Military yeah I think this is kind of a a multi-purpose uh superseding charge which is just in simple terms a supplemental add-on to the existing indictment um I think it kind of plays into the Justice Department's theme of the Senator's corrupt intent with respect to the conduct that is alleged but this indictment makes some specific examples there's a civilian American civilian who was injured by an Egyptian air strike um um there are sales of uh Munitions and and military aid uh that is alleged Senator Menendez made some actions on that would be beneficial to Egypt do you from reading the indictment and in your understanding of this see a direct connection there yeah I think you know I think it it it just expands upon and enlarges the the picture that doj is trying to paint with regard to the senator state of mind that he would took these different has it's alleged to engage in uh corrupt efforts to influence both us and non-us uh governments uh for improper purposes and I think it's pretty clear that's part of the narrative here that they're trying to portray in the indictment uh and of course now with the superseding charge which um is is really an effort as a former prosecutor I can tell you once a defendant signals that they are fairly dug in and and not inclined to um engage in settlement discussions that this is just an effort to kind of Leverage um the doj's position uh with adding additional charges that also creates additional potential criminal exposure so we may see more then more of this picture that that the doj is looking to paint potentially so uh very quickly I just want to ask you about whether or not this casts a shadow these are of course allegations they have not been proven um but this is someone who has tremendous influence in the Senate uh and as a federal prosecutor would you be looking into whether this cast a shadow on other dealings and every other action he had taken during that time or perhaps around that time period yeah I think this new chart certainly representative of that type of effort and when you're looking at a a high-profile individual that you're targeting you certainly want to kind of Cover the Waterfront to to determine if there is any other conduct that resembles the the initial conduct of predic Ates the investigation and I should have mentioned early earlier as I think the indictment reflects there's a categorical prohibition on members of Congress uh serving as foreign agents so the registration issue isn't really even relevant here because of the Senate ethics rules that that that apply Brian Whistler is a former Federal prosecutor and an attorney with Baker and McKenzie Brian thanks so much I pleasure good to speak with you [Music]