U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is resigning following corruption conviction
TRENTON, N.J. — U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is resigning from office Aug. 20 after being convicted of taking bribes for corrupt acts including acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
Menendez had insisted after the July 16 verdict that he was innocent and promised to appeal. The person who told the AP about the resignation did so on condition of anonymity because the New Jersey Democrat’s decision hadn’t been made public. The senator’s attorney hasn’t returned messages seeking comment.
The resignation gives New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, the ability to appoint someone to the Senate seat for the remainder of Menendez’s term, which expires on Jan. 3. Who becomes senator after that date will be decided by the Nov. 5 election. Democrats have nominated U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, who is favored the Democratic-leaning state. He faces Republican Curtis Bashaw.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez has been convicted of all the charges he faced at his corruption trial, including accepting bribes of gold and cash.
Menendez, 70, was convicted of charges that he sold the power of his office to three New Jersey businessmen who sought a variety of favors. Prosecutors said Menendez used his influence to meddle in three different state and federal criminal investigations to protect his associates. They said he helped one bribe-paying friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another keep a contract to provide religious certification for meat bound for Egypt.
He was also convicted of taking actions that benefited Egypt’s government in exchange for bribes, including providing details on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators regarding lifting a hold on military aid to Egypt. FBI agents found stacks of gold bars and $480,000 in cash hidden in Menendez’s house.
After his conviction, Menendez denied all those allegations, saying, “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”
But numerous fellow Democrats had urged him to resign, including Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. Murphy had urged the Senate to expel Menendez if he didn’t quit. Only 15 senators have ever been expelled. Sen. William Blount of Tennessee was ousted in 1797 for treason. The other 14 were expelled in 1861 and 1862 for supporting Confederates during the Civil War.
For the second time in a decade, Sen. Bob Menendez is finding his political career and freedom on the line in a federal criminal case.
Menendez faces the possibility of decades in prison. A judge scheduled his sentencing on Oct. 29, a week before the election.
His resignation ends a career spent in politics that started with his election to his local school board just a couple of years after high school graduation. He’s held office at every level in his home state and before his conviction had vowed to run as an independent in November for a fourth Senate term.
The son of Cuban immigrants and an attorney by training, Menendez was a Union City, N.J., school board member at age 20 and later became the mayor of the city, where he still has deep connections.
His biography says he wanted to fight corruption early in his political career, testifying against Union City officials and building a reputation as tough. He was elected to the state Assembly, then the state Senate before heading to the U.S. House.
Menendez was appointed to be a U.S. senator in 2006 when the seat opened up after incumbent Jon Corzine became governor. He was elected to the seat in 2006 and again in 2012 and 2018. He served as chair of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee beginning in 2013.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey has filed to run for reelection as an independent even as he is on trial on federal bribery charges.
His political career looked like it might be over in 2015, when he was indicted in New Jersey on charges that he had accepted bribes of luxury overseas vacations, private jet travel and campaign contributions from a wealthy Florida eye doctor, Salomon Melgen.
In return, prosecutors said, Menendez pressured government officials on Melgen’s behalf over an $8.9-million Medicare billing dispute and a stalled contract to provide port screening equipment in the Dominican Republic. They said he also helped obtain U.S. visas for the doctor’s girlfriends.
The defense argued that the gifts were not bribes but tokens of friendship between two men who were “like brothers.”
A jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial in 2017. U.S. prosecutors didn’t seek a retrial.
New Jersey voters then returned Menendez to the Senate for another term. Melgen was convicted in a separate fraud trial, but his 17-year prison sentence was later commuted by then-President Trump.
Catalini writes for the Associated Press.
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