we begin with breaking news Senator Bob Menendez maintains his innocence returning to a Manhattan court today pleading not guilty to allegations that he acted as a foreign agent to Egypt prosecutors accuse New Jersey's senior senator along with his wife and a third defendant of conspiring to Aid the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes alleging Menendez provided sensitive US Government information and took part in a corrupt agreement to help Egyptian military officials the new charge comes a month after Menendez and his wife pleaded not guilty to Federal corruption charges accusing them of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in return for the use of the high ranking Senators influence to enrich three New Jersey businessmen and the government of Egypt senior correspondent Renda Flanigan is outside the courthouse where Senator Mendez was arraigned and has the latest Brenda Brianna we spent about three minutes all told at this arraignment for Senator Bob Menendez he pleaded not guilty in a very strong voice to this latest charge of the superseding indictment now his codefendants including his wife naen pleaded not guilty last week the senator had asked that his arraignment be postponed to today because of his duties with the senate in Washington Federal Law forbids elected officials like a US senator from serving as a foreign agent but the indictment charges Menendez met with Egyptian officials who wanted his help to restore the flow of military aid to Egypt that had been blocked by Congress the Egyptians allegedly texted a tempting offer if Menendez helped resolve the matter he will sit very comfortably to which codefendant W Hana replied orders consider it done they've crossed the Rubicon into something new even for the Department of Justice they've never charged any member of Congress that I'm aware with acting as an agent of the foreign principal it's not a slam dunk prosecution according to law professor Stanley brand even though Menendez then sat as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee prosecutors alleg he further promised to take and took a series of Acts on behalf of Egypt including on behalf of Egyptian Military and intelligence officials but bran says the feds have to prove Menendez did something criminal that he exerted so much official pressure it qualifies as a formal exercise of governmental power standards set by the US Supreme Court the difficulty for me for the government is untangling what he may have done officially and legitimately from what is alleged here to be uh criminal activity um you know lurking in this case is the is the infamous speecher debate clause which is the legislative immunity for members for performing legitimate legislative acts of which several are I believe intertwined in these charges including things he did with respect to military aid for Egypt Menendez stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month after corruption charges accused him and his wife of conspiring to take bribes including Cash Gold Bars and a mercedesbenz in return for the Senator's influence and he did not attend a classified Senate security briefing on Israel last week after some colleagues question whether he's a risk to National Security Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he's had discussions with Menendez look I've known Senator Menendez a very long time and it was truly truly upsetting but we all know that Senators for senators there's a much much higher standard and clearly when you read the indictment Senator Menendez fell way way below that standard Menendez has vowed to fight the charges and he refused to resign stating defiantly I have been throughout my life loyal to only one country the United States of America but more than half of the democratic caucus including New Jersey colleague Senator Corey Booker have urged the baguer senator to give up his seat and some frankly want him expelled now judge cydney Stein did not change the terms of the Senator's release he's posted a $100,000 bond and he surrendered his personal passport although he is allowed to travel on official business with the permission of the Court the judge also said that this trial is going to start May 6th and he warned that he if there are any changes in the attorneys he wants to hear about it ahead of time now interestingly this trial date is less than a month before the New Jersey Senate primary which is already attracting several different candidates and Promises to be a very interesting race I'm Brenda Flanigan reporting from federal courthouse in lower Manhattan back to you Bri [Music] [Music]