Menendez, a longtime Democratic congressman, was convicted on July 16 of accepting bribes from three business executives who, along with his wife, accepted cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz as rewards for helping close deals with foreign government officials and thwart several criminal investigations in New Jersey. Senate Democrats have been urging Menendez in recent days to resign, a decision that would allow New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, to appoint an interim replacement until January.
Rep. Andy Kim (DN.J.) is running as the Democratic candidate to replace Sen. Menendez’s seat in 2024.
Menendez’s spokesman, Joshua Natori, declined to comment.
Once considered a rising star in the caucus, Mr. Menendez, 70, served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee as well as leading the caucus’ elections committee in 2010, but ended his career as a lone politician.
The resignation of a senator over an ethics scandal is a political rarity, with Menendez joining a group of only four people in the post-World War II era who have left the Senate amid corruption allegations, most recently Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in 2017 and John Ensign (R-Nev.) in 2011 amid investigations into sexual misconduct by the Ethics Committee.
A jury in Manhattan federal court found the senator guilty of 16 felony counts, including bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
In a wide-ranging case detailing the alleged bribery conspiracy, prosecutors How Menendez traded political influence for bullion, cash and cars to help three local business executives amid overlapping bribery allegations. He is accused of passing unclassified but what prosecutors designated “highly sensitive” inside information to Egyptian intelligence officials in an attempt to obstruct local criminal investigations and secure deals overseas for business executives he bribed.
Two New Jersey business executives, Fred Daves and Wael Wil Hana, an Egyptian-American, were charged with bribery and convicted along with him. His wife, Nadine Menendez, whom the congressman’s defense team portrayed as the secret ringleader of a scheme to cater to her expensive tastes, was also indicted but no trial date has been set. Being treated for advanced breast cancer.
His planned resignation came after quick calls for him to step down from Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, Murphy and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed of Iowa. His criminal record has been a thorn in the side of congressional Democrats, and his colleague, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has followed him down the halls, at times yelling at him to step down.
Menendez, who did not testify in his defense, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 29. He plans to appeal and has said he believes he will win. He could face decades in prison.
“I have never violated my public oath. I am nothing but a patriot dedicated to my country and my motherland,” he said outside the courthouse. “I am convinced that the law and facts did not support the sentence and I believe we will prevail on appeal.”
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said after the guilty verdict that the case was about a “shocking level of corruption” that undermined public trust.
Menendez has had a long and distinguished career in New Jersey politics, first elected to the Union City School Board in 1974, just two years after graduating from high school, before rising to become a State Senator and U.S. Representative, and then appointed to a vacant Senate seat in 2006. During his nearly two decades in the Legislature, Menendez wielded great influence, helping to write the Affordable Care Act and chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Menendez is no stranger to controversy.
Shortly after his appointment to the Senate, an ethics complaint alleging misuse of federal grant funds in 2006 led to a federal investigation. No charges were filed. Then, just days before his reelection in 2012, allegations emerged that the senator had slept with an underage prostitute while out of the country. The FBI did not substantiate these allegations, but they continued to plague Menendez’s career and he was featured in attack ads for his Republican opponent during his 2018 reelection campaign.
In 2015, Senator Menendez was indicted on charges of conspiracy, bribery and honest services fraud after the government accused him of accepting airfare, vacations and campaign contributions from wealthy donors in exchange for political favors – charges he strongly denies.
“I started my career as a civil servant fighting government corruption,” he said. “That’s where my career began, and today is not the end of my career.”
The trial ended with a deadlocked jury, and the Justice Department declined to retry Menendez.
After his indictment last year, Menendez gave up on seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2024 election and a fourth term, opting to run as an independent. Kim won the party’s nomination after New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy ended a competitive campaign for Menendez’s Senate seat. The primary fundamentally changed New Jersey politics, with a federal judge invalidating the state’s unique way of putting county-endorsed candidates on the ballot. Kim and two other Democrats running for Congress sued, arguing the vote was unfair and unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi sided with Kim and the other plaintiffs, saying a system of “bracketing” county-endorsed candidates gave them an unfair advantage over their challengers. The ruling forced New Jersey to rewrite the ballot ahead of the June primary.
“Candidates who are not bracketed tend to occupy a less prominent portion of the ballot, appear less important, are harder to find and may be lumped together with other candidates with whom one does not wish to be lumped,” Judge Quraishi wrote in a 49-page ruling in March.
Paul Kane contributed to this report.
