New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez Accused of Taking Mercedes Bride After Wife Hit and Killed Pedestrian in 2018

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, who is currently facing indictment for allegedly trading favors, has been accused of accepting a bribe in exchange for interfering in a criminal investigation, RadarOnline.com has learned.

The bribe in question is reported to have been a brand new Mercedes-Benz, received shortly after Menendez's then-wife-to-be, Nadine Arslanian, killed a man in a traffic accident.

According to the New York Post, Arslanian, 56, hit Richard Koop, 49, as he was crossing a road in Bogota, New Jersey, on December 12, 2018, at approximately 7:30 PM. Local police briefly questioned Arslanian before she was released from police custody.

"It is determined that at this time Ms. Arslanian was not at fault for the motor vehicle crash and that Mr. Koop was jaywalking," a Bogota police sergeant wrote in his report the next day.

The accident resulted in Koop's death, with his body being flung to the curb just steps away from his own house. The impact of the collision was so severe that Arslanian's Mercedes and the windshield were badly damaged.

Arslanian, who was Menendez's on-again, off-again lover at the time of the accident, ended up signing the papers for a brand-new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible in April 2019.

According to the report, it is alleged that Menendez used his political influence to intervene in a criminal probe, requesting leniency for an associate of businessman Jose Uribe in exchange for the financed luxury car.

Arslanian expressed her excitement about getting the car in a text message, stating, "All is GREAT! I'm so excited to get a car next week!!"

Menendez, Uribe, and Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman with ties to Uribe, were all indicted last month along with Arslanian. They are facing bribery charges, with federal prosecutors claiming that Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands in bribes, including cash, gold bars, and the Mercedes, over the span of four years.

As Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges, their attorney, David Schertler, has described the car crash as a "tragic accident" and unrelated to the bribery allegations.

Koop's family has expressed concerns about the investigation into the accident, describing it as "very sparse" and claiming that it has been overlooked by authorities.

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The Bogota Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office have not commented on the matter despite requests for information.

The victim's sister, Rosemarie Koop-Angelicola, has criticized the lack of attention given to the crash and the fact that Arslanian was not drug-tested following the incident.