Senator Robert Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were charged with obstruction of justice in a new federal indictment on Tuesday, adding to the wide-ranging bribery and corruption charges they already face.
The charges, returned by a grand jury in Manhattan, come just two months before Mr. Menendez, Ms. Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen are scheduled for trial.
All four defendants had pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges and are expected to appear for an arraignment on the new charges soon.
The indictment comes just days after a fifth defendant, Jose Uribe, a New Jersey businessman, pleaded guilty to seven counts, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit bribery, and agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation.
The new charges against the Menendezes appear related to information that was provided to the government by Mr. Uribe, who in court on Friday described meeting with Ms. Menendez at a Marriott Hotel after receiving a subpoena in the case.
Mr. Uribe said in court that Ms. Menendez had wanted to get their stories straight about a Mercedes-Benz convertible he had given her as a bribe.
“She asked what was I going to say if somebody asked me about the car payments,” Mr. Uribe said.
He agreed to lie to investigators — and to his own lawyer, he said.
In the new charges, prosecutors say that Mr. and Ms. Menendez paid Mr. Uribe back for the payments he had made on the Mercedes and falsely referred to that money as a “loan” in conversations with their lawyers, deliberately mischaracterizing the transaction.
As a result, the indictment charges, Mr. Menendez in June “caused his then counsel to make false and misleading statements to the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.” Two months later, Ms. Menendez did the same.
Lawyers for Mr. and Ms. Menendez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Menendez, 70, a New Jersey Democrat, was charged in September with accepting bribes, including cash, gold bars and a luxury Mercedes-Benz, in exchange for lucrative political favors and what prosecutors described as efforts to derail criminal investigations.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have previously expanded the accusations by filing revised indictments.
In October, Mr. Menendez was additionally charged with conspiring to act as an agent of Egypt while also serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And in January, prosecutors said he had used his power to aid the government of Qatar, a tiny Gulf state and major natural gas exporter that hosted the World Cup in 2022.
