Senator Bob Menendez says he's innocent and he plans to prove it in his first interview since being indicted on federal bribery and Corruption charges New Jersey senior US senator defended himself against allegations he acted as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government denied any wrongdoing in accusations that the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash Federal authorities found in his home were bribes and pledged to clear his name all while remaining in office he spoke with our senior political correspondent David Cruz today for this week's episode of chatbox in an exclusive interview let me ask the most obvious questions up front uh the US attorney says they found a half a million dollars in cash around the house stuffed in some cases in the pockets of your jackets and gold bars seemingly strewn about I mean I don't know many people who believe the explanation you gave about fears of having the cash uh confiscated how do you explain the gold bars where they come from and and Cash In Pockets why not have this stuff in a safe a safe for instance well uh let me say Dave that first of all uh the government uh presented this in the most salacious way possible the most Sensational way possible in order to have the desired effect that they have uh temporarily achieved you know the reality is is that we Pres presented information to the government uh on those issues and others uh that clearly explains a a different uh rationale for its existence which is something the government just simply decided not uh to acknowledge and use and so uh while I can't get into every specific of uh the charges that the government uh has alleged uh because uh I need to be able to preserve Reserve that for my defense uh you know this this is an example of how in fact we did give the government information uh and how in fact they chose not to use it and how I look forward to both the process in motions and a trial if we get to a trial uh that ultimately will show people in New Jersey what the truth really is I mean it just sounds frantic uh why not put the cash in a safe for and the gold bars in a safe in the home if the point is to safeguard them well again I can't get into all the specifics but as I've said you know I have drawn from my personal Credit Union savings account for the better part of 30 years uh $400 every week in cash uh and while that may seem oldfashioned or some people may think of it as crazy the reality is is that the government has those records uh they have the accounts that show that uh and they chose not to use it uh so uh you know this is why I look forward to being in a position to actually speak to these issues so that new jerseyans will have a different set of facts than the ones they have right now all right your wife is a codefendant in this you have separate attorneys can you describe your relationship During the period that's uh in this indictment were you Partners in your political and other endeavors we were husband and wife we are husband and wife uh I love her dearly uh and uh in fact uh you know uh we we do what everybody else who's a husband and wife do together and so that's the relationship that we've had uh over the three years that we've been married uh and uh I look forward to a long relationship uh with her because the suggestion is that you were working together she was introducing you to your the other codefendants in this case did you know them before you met her uh I knew some of them before her and others I did not yeah I know you want to talk about the other crises that are facing the world but look you're not a chair of Foreign Relations anymore you had to sit out a briefing on the Israeli Hamas war is it fair to say that uh you've been sidelined by these legal issues that you're facing absolutely not and let me correct one thing I was not barred from going into an intelligence briefing I still have all of my intelligence credentials the reality is after someone who has done foreign policy for 31 years uh that and who knows intimately the US Israel relationship and the challenges that Israel faces uh and particularly in the horrific uh actions of Hamas I didn't need to go to an intelligence briefing to tell me what we need to do to stand by Israel and at the same time help uh Palestinian people who are innocent and not part of Hamas so I've often not gone to an intelligence briefing when I didn't think it was going to be of value because I often learn there what I already know in public and then I'm barred from speaking about it almost all the members of your party in the state here and uh several of your colleagues in the Senate uh have suggested that um you resign uh I I have seen you beat the odds before but uh you've been in this business for a long time winning a primary uh even if these charges go away is going to be near impossible don't you serve your party uh and your state better by resigning now no uh on the contrary if I had taken the same course of action previously then all the good work that I've done for Sandy recovery all the good work I did during the pandemic the billions I bought to the state that Governor Murphy office spoke about was indispensable to the state at that period of time all of the work that I've done on luring the cost of prescription drugs and so much more would not have been accomplished and so you know uh as I said that that would be the easy way out as it relates to a primary you know uh I trust the people of New Jersey I've trusted them uh for nearly 50 years um and they have never disappointed me and uh I'm going to work hard not to disappoint them