It's a new year with the same old problems for us.

Senator Bob Menendez.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is re-upping his demand for Congress to remove Menendez from his seat.

The latest calls for expulsion come on the heels of another superseding indictment against the senior senator now accused of accepting bribes and a $24,000 watch to benefit Qatar.

Fetterman this week posted on X formerly Twitter that Menendez is now accused of acting as a foreign agent for two nations.

That's Qatar and Egypt.

Menendez has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but prosecutors argue he allegedly introduced his developer friend and codefendant Fred Daibes to high ranking officials in both countries, enabling both men to profit from the relationships.

Now, long before Daibes was charged with federal bribery and corruption, he was a well known entity among New Jersey political circles, donating heavily, heavily, not just to Menendez, but several other prominent elected officials in the state.

Our new Washington, DC correspondent Ben Hulac followed the money trail and shares what he found.

Ben Hulac First of all, welcome to the team and welcome to the show.

So you followed the money trail here.

What specifically did you find about the donations that Fred Daibes has been making, not just recently but over a span of years to politicians include Senator Menendez.

Right.

Mr. Daibes has been a long time political player and his donations started at least at the federal level, which was really the focus of my reporting in 1989, is given to New Jersey politicians, particularly in the northern half of the state.

Since then, more than a quarter of $1,000,000, 270,000 roughly.

And really, anyone from Bill Bradley all the way to the present day and also has given pretty heavily to the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is the arm of the Democratic Party that raises money for Senate candidates.

And I lay this out in better detail in the story online.

I mean, were there frequent fliers so were there specific members of of Congress, federal politicians, who Daibes devoted a lot of these funds to.

Yes.

Congressman Pascrell received, I think, about $18,000 and some other sitting members, Bonnie Watson, Coleman and Mikie Sherrill also received money, and they have been quick to distance themselves from that money.

They have returned it.

They said they've returned it.

I need to follow up on that in a later story.

The strongest connection is with Menendez.

And as I point out also in my piece, he's received campaign donations back into several decades.

Yeah, so bring that back home for me, because certainly there's no crime in donating to political campaigns, but it's also not supposed to be transactional.

Do these donations tell us anything at all about whether they were whether there was perhaps bribery involved?

I would not say that the federal prosecutors in New York have obviously made the accusations of bribery, establishes a trail of establishes a pattern, and certainly of connection between Daibes and Menendez.

You've got a number of folks who have received donations.

There are obviously accusations now involving not just Egypt, but also Qatar and Senator Menendez's involvement there.

The fact that Fred Daibes was in on some of these meetings with officials from there, I mean, above all, does it just look fishy?

Again, I'm not going to speculate, Briana, but it will be fascinating to watch the timeline until May, when the senator is scheduled to appear at trial in New York City.

It establishes a serious linkage of linkages between the two men.

I'm fascinated to hear what happens next.

Obviously, as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post from which Menendez has stepped down since these charges were laid against him.

He has significant power, and it's not unusual for someone in that position to meet with foreign leaders.

What is unusual and what the federal prosecutors are saying constitutes a breach of federal law.

Is meeting and and using your position of power for your own benefit and to benefit those around you.

So that's the distinction.

Members of Congress meet with foreign leaders frequently, especially if they're on committees with that sort of jurisdiction.

The federal folks are saying Menendez went farther than that and was looking out for folks in his own orbit.

And you can, of course, read Ben's full story on our website.

Ben, who is our new Washington, D.C. correspondent.

Good to have you on the show, Ben.

Pleasure to be here.

Thanks.