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Allegations {that a} main U.S. senator acted secretly to advance Egyptian pursuits in a bribery scheme have injected a brand new, flamable ingredient into Washington’s relationship with Cairo, testing a partnership already strained by rising regional competitors and friction over human rights.
The Justice Division on Friday introduced an explosive indictment towards Sen. Robert Menendez — the influential New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Senate International Relations Committee — and his spouse in what prosecutors described as a fancy cash-for-influence association.
Federal brokers cited the invention of gold bars and over $480,000 in money hidden in Menendez’s New Jersey residence, which they alleged had been acquired from an Egyptian-American businessman and different associates in change for favors, a few of which benefited the federal government of President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi.
Most worrying for the Biden administration would be the array of unnamed Egyptian officers, not less than some from Egypt’s army and intelligence companies, who prosecutors described searching for info and affect in direct interactions with Menendez and his spouse, or by way of their associates.
Gold bars and envelopes filled with money are a part of an alleged corruption scheme
The allegations involving a historic international accomplice and one of many nation’s most outstanding figures on world affairs come at a delicate second in Washington’s relations with the Center East, because the Biden administration seeks to refocus on China and Russia whereas additionally bolstering regional safety and reassuring companions involved about an American exit.
Menendez’s committee place offers him particular sway over the huge U.S. portfolio of arms gross sales and help to Cairo, together with the annual allotment of $1.3 billion in international army financing that for many years has made Egypt one of many largest U.S. assist recipients. It was not instantly clear what position, if any, Menendez, who as chairman has the power to dam assist or gross sales, had in shaping U.S. selections about arms gross sales or assist to Egypt.
Steven Cook dinner, a scholar on the Council on International Relations, stated U.S. officers’ rising dealings with the Gulf on Center East points, together with the Sisi authorities’s anger about criticism over democracy and human rights, has centered the 2 nations’ interactions on a slender set of points, most notably U.S. assist and Cairo’s means to dealer stop fires within the Gaza strip.
“I don’t see how the indictment will have an effect on the general bilateral relationship aside from sow additional distrust on each side,” Cook dinner stated.
However critics of Egypt’s rights file stated the federal government’s alleged try to safe covert affect should be met with a robust response. Seth Binder, an official on the Challenge on Center East Democracy, stated the fees raised “severe issues” about Egyptian makes an attempt to intrude in U.S. politics.
He known as on Congress to dam pending U.S. assist “in an effort to make crystal clear that al-Sisi’s human rights file and infiltrating the U.S. political system won’t be tolerated.”
For the Biden administration, the allegations towards a key congressional ally come at uncomfortable second, as officers search passage of billions of {dollars} in new spending for Ukraine. The White Home didn’t instantly reply to questions concerning the allegations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requested in New York concerning the indictment, cited an “ongoing authorized matter” and declined to remark.
The Egyptian authorities and the Egyptian embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Menendez, who was reelected after beating earlier corruption prices, denied any wrongdoing and accused prosecutors of misrepresenting his work in Congress. Below Senate guidelines, he’s required to step down from his place as committee chair.
Among the many prices within the indictment is an alleged association during which Menendez promised to facilitate continued assist and arms gross sales to Cairo in change for his spouse being placed on the payroll of an Egyptian-American businessman, Wael Hana.
In one other incident, Menendez allegedly used his clout with the State Division to amass unclassified however delicate details about staffing within the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, which was then relayed by his spouse to Hana, after which to the Egyptian authorities. In one other occasion, Menendez allegedly helped an Egyptian official “ghostwrite” a letter that was meant to be despatched to different U.S. senators requesting the discharge of assist funds.
The indictment comes per week after the Biden administration made a intently watched resolution on army assist to Egypt, withholding tens of millions of {dollars} topic to human rights situations however authorizing the fee of different such funds.
For Sisi, a former basic who took energy in a 2013 army coup, securing continued U.S. assist is crucial. Egypt is within the throes of a significant financial disaster, with file inflation fueling discontent as Sisi prepares to run for reelection in a number of months. Sisi and the army institution maintain huge sway over politics, governance and the financial system — however hovering meals costs and a wheat scarcity sparked the revolution that toppled the final dictator’s authorities.
Since President Biden took workplace in 2021, vowing to place human rights on the middle of his international coverage, Sisi has taken plenty of steps to scrub up his picture. He has pardoned plenty of high-profile political prisoners and launched a nationwide dialogue via which actors throughout the political spectrum, except for Islamists, had been invited to debate and suggest reforms.
However rights teams say the measures, whereas welcome, are window dressing on a broader clamp down on authorities critics. Tens of 1000’s of “unjustly detained” prisoners stay behind bars, in keeping with Human Rights Watch, and studies of torture abound. Arrests on political grounds have outpaced releases of political prisoners, the Egyptian Fee for Rights and Freedoms, a Cairo-based human rights teams, instructed The Washington Publish this month.
On Saturday, simply two days after the State Division resolution on army assist, outstanding opposition chief Hisham Kassem was sentenced to 6 months in jail on speech-related prices that rights teams decried as spurious.
Whereas its relative significance in U.S. coverage within the Center East has diminished as the worldwide clout and wealth of Gulf nations has grown, Egypt continues to occupy a key position in U.S. dealings with the area. Egypt’s affect within the Gaza strip, a prime safety precedence of U.S. ally Israel, stays a key curiosity, as does its willingness to crack down on Islamists within the Sinai Peninsula.
At occasions, Washington and Cairo have ended up on totally different sides of worldwide points, as in Libya, the place Egypt supplied years of backing to strongman Khalifa Hifter. The rising regional affect of Russia and China has heightened the stakes for U.S. diplomats. A large intelligence leak earlier this 12 months shed new mild on these issues, revealing that Sisi had deliberate to secretly provide rockets to Russia till U.S. officers stepped in to strong-arm the strongman into supplying arms to Ukraine as a substitute.
Menendez was certainly one of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met with Sisi throughout a go to to Egypt in late August. In keeping with statements from Sisi and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who was additionally a part of the delegation, the group mentioned matters together with negotiations between Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam — a large infrastructure mission that Egypt views as a risk — and U.S. efforts to dealer ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Menendez has periodically spoken out concerning human and political rights in Egypt, issuing not less than 10 tweets about political prisoners or associated issues since 2019.
Whereas the alleged bribery scheme involving Menendez could also be unprecedented, Mai El-Sadany of the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Center East coverage famous earlier efforts by the Egyptian authorities to increase covert affect in the USA. In January 2022, the FBI charged an Egyptian-American man with spying on opponents of Sisi in the USA.
“This can be a clear occasion of the Egyptian authorities making an attempt to affect our system of governance, and it must be a part of the dialog,” stated El-Sadany.
Michael Birnbaum and John Hudson contributed to this report from New York.