Dem Sen. Menendez charged with acting as foreign agent to Egypt – National & International News – THU 12Oct2023

Dem Sen. Menendez charged with acting as foreign agent to Egypt.

Scalise scrambles to marshal speaker votes from fractious House GOP.

“No conditions” on US military aid to Israel, Defense Sec. Austin says.

NATIONAL NEWS

Dem Sen. Menendez charged with acting as foreign agent to Egypt

Last month, federal prosecutors hit Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), his wife Nadine and three of their associates with corruption charges. This followed a search by federal agents of Menendez’s home that turned up hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars. Prosecutors at the time laid out the case that Menendez and his wife had used his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee to do favors for three Egyptian American businessmen, and by extension, the Egyptian government.

One of the accusations was that Menendez, through Nadine and another intermediary, had passed along sensitive information about personnel at the US Embassy in Egypt. Additionally, Menendez himself ghost-wrote a letter meant to be an appeal from Egypt for more US aid. Some commentators were surprised at the time that Menendez was not charged with espionage or being a foreign agent at the time and speculated that prosecutors in the case could file such charges later.

Today, prosecutors have done just that. In a revised indictment, Menendez is now charged with engaging in a conspiracy to act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government. Prosecutors say Wael Hana, one of the Egyptian businessmen who was also indicted, arranged meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials seeking more military aid. As a quid pro quo, prosecutors allege, Hana put Nadine  on the payroll of one of his companies.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

Scalise scrambles to marshal speaker votes from fractious House GOP

In a closed-door GOP-only meeting yesterday, House Republicans backed Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) to be the next Speaker of the House. His opponent, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said he would back Scalise and would encourage his supporters to do likewise. But now a day later, Scalise seems to be going backward in his fight to win 217 votes. He can only afford four defections, due to two seats being vacant, and there are many more holdouts. Reports show at least a dozen are a “hard no” on Scalise, and many more have voiced skepticism.

It’s no surprise that many of the MAGA contingent (who mostly supported Jordan) are holding out. But some moderate Republicans are also not on board for Scalise. Most Republicans are just frustrated with the deadlock, given the situation in Israel as well as the looming fight to beat another government in the middle of November.

Some Democrats, notably Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) have held out an olive branch, offering a way for any potential speaker to circumvent GOP factionalism. On Twitter, Escobar lamented “We don’t have time for this”, and went on to say “I welcome any Republican willing to join @HouseDemocrats to put our country ahead of petty politics. We must avoid the mess that has gripped our country for the last 10 months, or I fear we’ll simply be taken down the same, dysfunctional path we’ve experienced since January.”

It’s unfortunately unlikely any GOP Speaker would be willing to make this deal. However, some House Republicans have a different, if temporary, end run in mind. Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) says that he and other GOP members are “coming around” to the idea of empowering current Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to serve as the actual speaker for “30, 45 to 60 days, something along those lines.”

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

“No conditions” on US military aid to Israel, Defense Sec. Austin says

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the US will be placing “no conditions” on its military aid to Israel in its retaliatory attacks on Gaza. This means the US will not condition aid on Israel making even minimal effort to protect civilians in Gaza or to avoid civilian targets. Austin said “[The IDF] is a professional military, led by professional leadership, and we would hope and expect that they would do the right things in the prosecution of their campaign”.

As of Thursday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 1,537 Palestinians, including 500 children and 276 women have been killed since Israel launched its retaliatory air strikes on Saturday. Over 6,000 have been wounded. Those numbers are expected to rise higher as the IDF continues bombing civilian targets including schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and even UN facilities. The IDF has also bombed Gaza’s only land crossing into Egypt, so they cannot escape.

Among those trapped in Gaza are many American families who either live there or were visiting family at the time the attacks occurred. While the State Department is organizing chartered flights for Americans looking to leave Israel, Americans in Gaza have had no help from the US Embassy. 

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).