Tonight, a sitting United States senator is accused of using his official position to help a foreign power in exchange for riches and rewards. And while the allegations of cash, gold bars, even the convertibles, are getting all the attention, the other end of those alleged bribes is downright chilling. The Justice Department indicting senator bob menendez and his wife among allegations he sought and received Sensitive Information about u. S. Diplomats in egypt, information that eventually made its way to people with ties to the government. In addition, prosecutors say that he gave nonpublic information about u. S. Military aid. Also accused of ghost writing a pitch to senators on behalf of a foreign government. That would ease restrictions on arms and ammunition to egypt. Those restrictions in place in part due to concerns about human rights and democracy. All of this as he is chairing the Senate Foreign relations committee, one of the most powerful positions in the entire government.
On your screen there the Podium Set Up at the Department Of Justice where federal officials will be holding a Press Conference to announce Bribery Charges against democratic senator bob menendez along with his wife nadine. Well bring you the remarks when they begin. A Federal Grand Jury allege they received, quotes, Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars in bribes using his influence in washington to enrich several new jersey businessmen, as well as the egyptian government. As for menendez future on capitol hill, a source says he will be stepping down as chairman of a committee while this goes on. We are awaiting that News Conference to begin. Ken, what else is inside this indictment . How serious are the charges . Reporter extremely serious. This is a Bribery Indictment against Senator Menendez and his wife nadine. This involves new jersey businessmen who sought and got the senators Assistance Intervening in criminal cases. The indictment says menendez went into Business Transactions for a
Much time, maybe around a year, 12 months, could be even less than that depending on whether they consider the gun to have been possessed for Sporting Purposes or collection, and i dont know if he could make a case for that or not, but, you know, were talking about probably somewhere in the 12month neighborhood i would think. Jennifer, please stay with us. We want to reset for our viewers if youre just joining us on cnn news central, an historic decision by the Department Of Justice. They have filed charges against the son of President Joe Biden, hunter biden, three different charges, two of them related to lying on statements in an effort to buy a firearm. The third charge for actually possessing that for imas a prohibited person. A reminder, the case being brought by Special Counsel daniel weiss is based on Hunter Bidens purchase of this weapon as he wrote in his form that he was not using narcotics and later in a biography wrote that he did. We have a team of reporters and analysts
senator lindsey graham an ally of donald trump. is the seemingly never ending trump soap opera about to plunge the us into turmoil? senator lindsey graham, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. senator, you are one of the strongest republican supporters of ukraine and of us military assistance to ukraine. right. would you acknowledge that, right now, the war isn t going the way you wanted it to, or indeed the way you expected it to just a few months ago? not at all. i think it s going exceedingly well. i just got back from ukraine last wednesday. there s major breakthroughs in the south. the land mine situation was incredible. i could not be more proud of how they ve used the military equipment provided by our countries. they re putting pressure, they ve broken through the first defensive line. i think they ll split the russian forces in crimea in the next couple of weeks, months. so i am exceedingly proud of the ukrainian military. well, that is extraordinarily upbeat, if i may
plunge the us into turmoil? senator lindsey graham, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. senator, you are one of the strongest republican supporters of ukraine and of us military assistance to ukraine. right. would you acknowledge that, right now, the war isn t going the way you wanted it to, or indeed the way you expected it to just a few months ago? not at all. i think it s going exceedingly well. i just got back from ukraine last wednesday. there s major breakthroughs in the south. the land mine situation was incredible. i could not be more proud of how they ve used the military equipment provided by our countries. they re putting pressure, they ve broken through the first defensive line. i think they ll split the russian forces in crimea in the next couple of weeks, months. so i am exceedingly proud of the ukrainian military. well, that is extraordinarily upbeat, if i may say so, compared with what we see in leaks from classified pentagon documents suggesting and i m quoting