A New Jersey Democrat faces decades in prison after being convicted of accepting bribes and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has announced he will resign next month following his Conviction for corruptionincluding corruption and acting as Egyptian government agent.
Tuesday’s decision came as Menendez’s fellow Democrats pressured him to resign or become the first politician to be expelled from the Senate since 1862.
“I will resign as United States Senator from New Jersey, effective the end of the day, August 20, 2024,” Menendez’s letter states.
“While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict all the way to the Supreme Court, I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that would undermine its important work,” the letter added.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy will appoint a replacement for Menendez, who has represented New Jersey in the Senate since 2006 and served as chairman of the influential Foreign Relations Committee before relinquishing that post after indicted last year.
Menendez’s current six-year term ends Jan. 3.
Murphy said in a statement that he had received the letter but did not provide details on when he would finalize a decision on appointing Menendez’s temporary replacement.
Corruption systems
Menendez, 70, was convicted July 16 by a Manhattan federal court jury on all 16 charges, including obstruction of justice, wire fraud and extortion, after a nine-week trial. Two co-defendants were also convicted.
The case involved what prosecutors said were bribery schemes in which the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and car and mortgage payments from three businessmen. In exchange, Menendez steered billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Egypt and tried to influence criminal prosecutions of two of the businessmen, prosecutors said.
Menendez, who plans to appeal, faces decades in prison.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein set the politician’s sentencing for Oct. 29, a week before the Nov. 5 election.
The Senate received a copy of Menendez’s resignation letter, according to Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, who presided over the chamber Tuesday.
Menendez’s resignation will temporarily reduce the Democratic majority in the Senate to 50-49 until Murphy’s appointee is sworn in to complete the remainder of Menendez’s term.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim is running for the seat in November and is favored to win in Democratic-leaning New Jersey.
Many Democrats had called for Menendez to resign, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker, New Jersey’s other senator. Murphy, the New Jersey governor, had urged the Senate to expel Menendez if he did not resign.
This was Menendez’s second trial, following a 2017 trial that ended when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Menendez was censured by the Senate Ethics Committee for accepting gifts from a wealthy longtime friend in exchange for official favors.
Menendez was first appointed to the Senate in 2006 after serving 13 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was subsequently elected to the Senate three times.
He previously served in the New Jersey legislature and as mayor.
For decades, he has been a strong voice in U.S. foreign relations, most recently advocating for additional aid to Ukraine and Israel as Democratic President Joe Biden pushed Congress to allocate more money to foreign allies involved in conflicts.
U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, the senator’s son, continues to represent a New Jersey congressional district across the Hudson River from New York, similar to the district his father previously represented.
