Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) announced he plans to resign effective Aug. 20, after months of Democratic hand-wringing over his scandalous federal trial and recent conviction.
“While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict, all the way and including to the Supreme Court, I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work,” Menendez wrote in a letter announcing his resignation to New Jersey’s governor and Senate officials.
Menendez had insisted after the July 16 verdict that he was innocent and on Tuesday in his letter promised to appeal “all the way,” including to the Supreme Court, he wrote to fellow Democrat, Gov. Phil Murphy.
The roughly monthlong delay in leaving gives his staff time for an orderly transition, Menendez said.
He did not mention the federal conviction in the letter but claimed he is helping Superstorm Sandy victims and getting transit funding, among other items and addressed the governor directly, reminding Murphy that he had once praised Menendez — before calling for his resignation.
The longtime Democratic lawmaker was convicted July 16 of taking bribes from three business executives who showered him and his wife with cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, an extravagant bounty for his help securing deals with foreign officials and trying to derail several criminal investigations in New Jersey.
Menendez’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate have implored him to resign in recent days, and his decision to do so allows Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to appoint a temporary replacement to serve until January.
Rep. Andy Kim, who is the Democratic nominee in the election, should be appointed to fill Menendez’s Senate seat, said Lisa McCormick, the only Democrat who challenged to corrupt lawmaker in the 2018 primary election, after his first criminal trial ended in a hung jury. She also said that Menendez should leave his office immediately.
Once considered a rising star in his caucus — not only did he chair the Foreign Relations Committee but he also led the caucus’s campaign committee in 2010 — Menendez, 70, ended his career as a political loner.
Senate resignations because of ethical scandals are a political rarity, with Menendez joining a group of only four to leave the chamber in the post-World War II era under corruption clouds. Most recently, 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 found the senator guilty on 16 felony counts, including bribery, extortion and working as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt.
In a wide-ranging case detailing charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, prosecutors laid out how Menendez traded his political influence for gold bars, cash and a car in exchange for supporting three local business executives. In the overlapping bribery allegations, he was accused of passing unclassified but what prosecutors said had been designated “highly sensitive” insider knowledge to Egyptian intelligence officials, attempting to derail local criminal investigations and securing foreign deals for the business executives bribing him.
Two New Jersey business executives accused of bribing him, Fred Daibes and Egyptian-American Wael “Will” Hana, were convicted alongside him. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez — who the lawmaker’s defense attorneys painted as the secretive mastermind of a scheme designed to keep up with her expensive tastes — also was indicted, but no date has been set for her trial as she undergoes treatment for advanced breast cancer.
His plans to resign followed calls for him to step down from Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Murphy and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). His criminal baggage had become a distraction for Democrats on the Hill, with one of his colleagues, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), even following him around the hallways at times, yelling at him to resign.
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