Bob Menendez’ Wife Had Corrupt Deal With COVID Lab, Feds Say

The six-figure gig Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife landed with an Egypt-linked COVID-19 lab, and the millions of dollars of testing business it did in their home state of New Jersey, were “a direct outgrowth” of the sprawling international bribery scheme engulfing the pair, according to court filings by the Department of Justice—filings that substantiate an investigation by The Daily Beast last October.

As The Daily Beast revealed six months ago, the senator’s wife and co-defendant worked for Fusion Diagnostics Laboratory during the 2020 through 2021 period in which it secured deals to run testing facilities across the northern Garden State turf that has long served as Menendez’s political base, allowing it to draw more than $10 million in federal funding. The new filings by prosecutors, who accuse the Menendezes of acting as agents of the Egyptian and Qatari governments in exchange for bribes from connected businessmen, exposed additional details about the deal, including how much Nadine Menendez got paid: “over $100,000,” according to the brief submitted Friday.

The documents also assert that Fusion, and the senator’s spouse, benefited from the tremendous power the once-mighty Menendezes wielded in the towns and cities controlled by New Jersey’s notorious Democratic Party machine.

Read more at The Daily Beast.