U.S. Senator Bob Menendez resigned from his post on Tuesday in a letter that was read aloud on the Senate floor, a week after being impeached found guilty of corruption and amid pressure from his Democratic colleagues.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat, will name a replacement for Menendez, who has represented the state in the Senate since 2006 and served as chairman of the influential Foreign Relations Committee before resigning from that post after being impeached last year.
Menendez, 70, was found guilty July 16 by a jury in Manhattan federal court of all 16 criminal charges he faced — which also included obstruction of justice, wire fraud and extortion — after a nine-week trial. Two co-defendants were also convicted.
The son of Cuban immigrants and a trained lawyer, Menendez has insisted he is innocent and vowed to appeal the jury’s decision.
Menendez’s resignation will temporarily reduce the Democratic majority in the Senate to 50-49 until Gov. Murphy’s appointee is sworn in to finish the remainder of Menendez’s current six-year term, which ends in January. Rep. Andy Kim is running for the seat in November and is favored to win in New Jersey, a Democratic-leaning state.
Numerous Democrats had called for Menendez to resign, including Murphy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker, New Jersey’s other senator.
The accusations
Menendez was convicted on 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 separate state and federal criminal investigations to protect his associates.
They also said he helped a friend who paid bribes secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another maintain a contract to provide religious certification for meat destined for Egypt.
He was also convicted of taking actions that benefited the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes, including providing details about U.S. embassy staff in Cairo and writing an anonymous letter to other senators regarding lifting the suspension of military aid to Egypt.
FBI agents found stacks of gold bullion and $480,000 in cash hidden in Menendez’s home.
After the trial, Menendez denied all of these accusations, saying: “I have never been anything other than a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”
Menendez faces the possibility of spending decades in prison. A judge scheduled his sentencing for Oct. 29, a week before the election.
Menendez’s political career looked set to end in 2015, when he was charged in New Jersey with accepting bribes for luxury overseas vacations, private jet travel and campaign contributions from a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen.
Prosecutors said in return Menendez lobbied government officials on Melgen’s behalf in connection with an $8.9 million Medicare billing dispute and a stalled contract to provide inspection equipment at ports 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 rather tokens of friendship between two men who were “like brothers.”
The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, leading to a mistrial in 2017. U.S. prosecutors did not request a new trial at the time.
New Jersey voters later 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 Donald Trump.
[Con información de Reuters y AP]
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