Bob Menendez Helped Businessman Seek Qatari Investment, Prosecutors Say

Sen. Bob Menendez helped a New Jersey businessman seek an investment from a Qatari company with ties to the Middle Eastern country's government, prosecutors said on Tuesday in a new indictment against the Democratic lawmaker.

Menendez in October pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from New Jersey businessmen in exchange for interfering with law enforcement probes into them.

In Tuesday's superseding indictment, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Menendez introduced the businessman, Fred Daibes, to a member of the Qatari royal family to negotiate a multimillion-dollar investment into a real estate project. Daibes was indicted alongside Menendez and has pleaded not guilty.

Menendez also made statements in support of the Qatari government as the company considered the investment, prosectors alleged, according to CNN.

"Menendez provided Daibes with these statements so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari Investor and Qatari government officials associated with the Qatari Investment Company," prosecutors said.

Menendez's trial is set for May 6.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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