The longtime Democratic lawmaker was convicted July 16 of taking bribes from three enterprise executives who showered him and his spouse with money, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, an extravagant bounty for his assist securing offers with overseas officers and attempting to derail a number of felony investigations in New Jersey. Menendez’s Democratic colleagues within the Senate have implored him to resign in current days, and his determination to take action permits Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to nominate a brief alternative to serve till January.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is working because the Democratic nominee within the 2024 election for Menendez’s Senate seat.
Menendez’s spokesman, Joshua Natoli, declined to remark.
As soon as thought-about a rising star in his caucus — not solely did he chair the International Relations Committee however he additionally led the caucus’s marketing campaign committee in 2010 — Menendez, 70, ended his profession as a political loner.
Senate resignations due to moral scandals are a political rarity, with Menendez becoming a member of a gaggle of solely 4 to depart the chamber within the post-World Conflict II period underneath corruption clouds. Most just lately, Al Franken (D-Minn.), in 2017; and John Ensign (R-Nev.), in 2011, resigned amid ethics committee investigations of sexual misconduct.
A jury in a Manhattan federal court docket discovered the senator responsible on 16 felony counts, together with bribery, extortion and dealing as a overseas agent on behalf of Egypt.
In a wide-ranging case detailing expenses of conspiracy to commit bribery, prosecutors laid out how Menendez traded his political affect for gold bars, money and a automobile in trade for supporting three native enterprise executives. Within the overlapping bribery allegations, he was accused of passing unclassified however what prosecutors mentioned had been designated “extremely delicate” insider information to Egyptian intelligence officers, trying to derail native felony investigations and securing overseas offers for the enterprise executives bribing him.
Two New Jersey enterprise executives accused of bribing him, Fred Daibes and Egyptian-American Wael “Will” Hana, had been convicted alongside him. Menendez’s spouse, Nadine Menendez — who the lawmaker’s protection attorneys painted because the secretive mastermind of a scheme designed to maintain up together with her costly tastes — additionally was indicted, however no date has been set for her trial as she undergoes therapy for superior breast most cancers.
His plans to resign adopted quick requires him to step down from Senate Majority Chief Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Murphy and the chairman of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). His felony baggage had grow to be a distraction for Democrats on the Hill, with one in every of his colleagues, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), even following him across the hallways at occasions, yelling at him to resign.
Menendez, who didn’t testify in his personal protection, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29. He has mentioned he intends to enchantment and believes he’ll win. He might face many years in jail.
“I’ve by no means violated my public oath. I’ve by no means been something however a patriot of my nation and for my nation,” he mentioned exterior the courthouse. “I’ve each religion that the regulation and the information didn’t maintain that call and that we are going to achieve success upon enchantment.”
Manhattan U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams mentioned after the conviction that the case had all the time been about “surprising ranges of corruption” that erodes public belief.
Menendez had an extended and storied historical past in New Jersey politics. First elected to the training board in Union Metropolis, in 1974, solely two years after he completed highschool, he moved as much as state Senate, and U.S. Home, earlier than being appointed to a vacant Senate seat in 2006. In his nearly 20 years in Congress, Menendez wielded huge affect, serving to write the Inexpensive Care Act and main the Senate International Relations Committee.
Menendez has been no stranger to controversy.
Shortly after his Senate appointment, a 2006 ethics criticism alleging misuse of federal grant cash prompted a federal investigation. No expenses had been introduced. Later, solely days earlier than his reelection in 2012, claims emerged that the senator had slept with underage intercourse employees whereas overseas. The FBI by no means substantiated the claims, however they continued to plague Menendez’s profession, showing in assault advertisements from a Republican challenger throughout his 2018 reelection marketing campaign.
In 2015, Menendez confronted expenses of conspiracy, bribery and sincere providers fraud after the federal government accused him of accepting flights, holidays and marketing campaign contributions from a rich donor in trade for political favors. The senator vehemently denied the claims.
“I began in public service preventing corruption in authorities,” he mentioned. “That’s how I started my profession, and in the present day just isn’t how my profession goes to finish.”
The trial resulted in a deadlocked jury, and the Justice Division declined to retry Menendez.
After his indictment final yr, Menendez declined to hunt the Democratic nomination for the 2024 election and pursue a fourth time period, opting as an alternative to run as an unbiased. After New Jersey first woman Tammy Murphy suspended her aggressive marketing campaign for Menendez’s Senate seat, Kim gained his occasion’s nomination. The first race basically modified New Jersey politics as a federal decide struck down the state’s distinctive method of displaying county-endorsed candidates on the poll, after a lawsuit by Kim and two different Democrats working for Congress charged that the poll was unfair and unconstitutional.
U.S. District Choose Zahid N. Quraishi sided with Kim and the opposite plaintiffs and mentioned the system of “bracketing” county-endorsed candidates gave them an unfair benefit over their challengers. The ruling pressured New Jersey to revamp its ballots forward of the June major.
“Unbracketed candidates are likely to occupy obscure components of the poll that seem much less essential and are tougher to find, and could also be grouped in a column with different candidates with whom they didn’t need to be related,” Quraishi wrote in a 49-page ruling in March.
Paul Kane contributed to this report.