New Jersey's embattled Democratic senator Bob Menendez was slammed with new criminal charges for trying to cover up a bribery scandal. 

Menendez was originally indicted in September for taking bribes from three businessmen with ties to Egypt in exchange for official favors. One of those businessmen, Jose Uribe, recently pled guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

A superseding indictment filed against Menendez and his wife added charges for obstruction of justice, bringing the total count to 18.

Bob Menendez faces new charges

In court Friday, co-defendant Jose Uribe admitted to buying a Mercedez-Benz for Menendez' wife Nadine and then lying to investigators. 

Uribe said he told Nadine that he would say the car payments were a loan, to which Nadine replied, "sounds good."

"I knew that giving a car in return for influencing a United States senator to stop a criminal investigation was wrong, and I deeply regret my actions,” Uribe said.

In addition to the car, Menendez and his wife allegedly accepted gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

The superseding indictment says Menendez and his wife told lawyers to lie about the car payments and a $23,000 mortgage payment that was paid by another client.

"In truth and in fact, as Menendez well knew, Menendez had learned of both the mortgage company payment and the car payments prior to 2022, and that they were not loans but bribe payments," the indictment said.

Menendez doubles down

Menendez was already facing charges of bribery and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt and Qatar during his tenure as chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

Menendez has defied pressure to resign with chutzpah, even suggesting he is being targeted because of his Hispanic heritage.

“The latest charge reveals far more about the government than it says about me,” Menendez said. “It says that the prosecutors are afraid of the facts, scared to subject their charges to the fair-minded scrutiny of a jury, and unconstrained by any sense of justice or fair play."

“It says, once and for all, that they will stop at nothing in their zeal to get me,” he continued.

While Menendez has refused to step aside, a heated primary is already underway to replace him, pitting New Jersey's First Lady, Tammy Murphy, against Democratic congressman Andy Kim.