Menendez Says He Kept Bundles of Cash at His House ‘Due to a History of Property Confiscations in Cuba’

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey claimed that he kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bullion in his home because of Cuban property confiscations, according to a press conference he held on Monday after his indictment on federal corruption charges.

Menendez, the three-term senior senator from New Jersey, was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and extortion for allegedly receiving money from three businessmen in exchange for steering U.S. foreign policy to favor Egypt. In a press conference on Monday, Menendez defended himself against the charges and explained that the money and gold found in his home were drawn from his savings and kept “due to a history of property confiscations in Cuba.”

“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my savings account, which I have kept for contingencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” he said. “These were monies drawn from my personal savings”

Though the communist-led government of Cuba has been known to confiscate the property of citizens, Menendez was born in the United States and has lived in the country for his entire life. One of the envelopes in which the money was discovered had DNA matching a co-defendant of Menendez, Fred Diabes, who allegedly acted as a conduit for bribes with Egyptian money.

“To those who have rushed to judgment, you have done so based on a limited set of facts framed by the prosecutors in the most salacious way possible,” Menendez said. “The court of public opinion is no substitute for our justice system … I will not only be totally exonerated but also New Jersey’s senior senator.”