Lobbying records for Boeing from 2019 do not mention Menendez, his committee, Egypt, or the Apache by name. However, the documents do reflect that the company expended tens of thousands of dollars that year advocating that both houses of Congress approve appropriations “for a variety of programs and activities of The Boeing Company,” including for “rotorcraft.”
The updated criminal complaint prosecutors filed last week describes a meeting between the New Jersey Democrat and several alleged co-conspirators—including his wife, Nadine Arslanian—on May 21, 2019, held with a member of Cairo’s military intelligence agency. This was one in a string of in-person and electronic interactions which the Justice Department presented as evidence that the then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his accused accomplices served as operatives for the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes.
But in this particular engagement, the feds allege Menendez, his associates, and his Egyptian contact discussed the opposition the Trump administration’s $1 billion sale of Apache military helicopters to the Middle East nation faced from some members of Congress, including then-Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). At the core of their objections was the authoritarian regime’s use of these same model choppers four years earlier to attack a tour group it mistook for militants, an assault that left several dead and one American citizen injured.
In the following days, Menendez—whose leadership position on the Foreign Relations Committee granted him power over the sale’s finalization—allegedly conducted research on the victim, April Corley of California. Meanwhile, the Egyptian official reportedly promised accused co-conspirator Wael Hana via an encrypted messaging service that Menendez “will sit very comfortably” should he make the problem with the chopper package go away. . ."
But in this particular engagement, the feds allege Menendez, his associates, and his Egyptian contact discussed the opposition the Trump administration’s $1 billion sale of Apache military helicopters to the Middle East nation faced from some members of Congress, including then-Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). At the core of their objections was the authoritarian regime’s use of these same model choppers four years earlier to attack a tour group it mistook for militants, an assault that left several dead and one American citizen injured.
In the following days, Menendez—whose leadership position on the Foreign Relations Committee granted him power over the sale’s finalization—allegedly conducted research on the victim, April Corley of California. Meanwhile, the Egyptian official reportedly promised accused co-conspirator Wael Hana via an encrypted messaging service that Menendez “will sit very comfortably” should he make the problem with the chopper package go away. . ."
>
No comments:
Post a Comment