Menendez to resign from Senate next month

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) plans to resign from the Senate next month after coming under pressure from fellow Democrats to step down in the wake of his bribery scandal and conviction, a source familiar has confirmed to The Hill.

The New Jersey Globe reported Menendez will step down effective Aug. 20. The Hill has reached out to Menendez's office.

Menendez was convicted last week on charges of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and the rest of the 16 counts he faced in an indictment alleging he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from business associates, including the owner of a company prosecutors said benefited handsomely from Menendez’s influence over U.S. foreign policy.

The 70-year-old, who has held his seat since 2006, reportedly plans to appeal the conviction.

He had faced calls to step down since the indictment was first handed down, at the time accusing the Department of Justice of trying to force him from Congress because of his “humble beginnings” as a first-generation Latino American. He relinquished his post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee once the charges were brought, in accordance with Senate Democratic rules.

Menendez’s political support from fellow Democrats eroded quickly as the most incriminating details of the federal indictment gained attention, including revelations that federal agents seized $480,000 in cash stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothes, $100,000 in gold bars and a brand new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible at the senator’s New Jersey home.  

Once the verdict was announced, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who had previously stopped short of calling for Menendez's resignation, said he should step down, as discussions of possibly expelling the New Jersey Democrat increased.

Prosecutors said Menendez wielded his influence over U.S. foreign policy toward Egypt to help an associate, Wael "Will" Hana, obtain lucrative exclusive rights to certify American meet exports to Egypt as "halal" and also used his office to pressure the U.S. Department of Agriculture not to interfere with Hana's monopoly.

They also accused the New Jersey senator of trying to intervene in the criminal prosecution of an associate of one of his co-defendants and in return received a Mercedes-Benz worth $60,000.

Menendez himself showed no indication of stepping down last year, when he accused federal prosecutors of “excesses.”

“They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met,” he said.  

“I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent,” he said.  

Menendez had clashed with prosecutors previously, triumphing over an indictment brought eight years ago alleging he participated in a bribery scheme with a wealthy doctor, Salomen Melgen, who was later sentenced to 17 years in prison for a Medicare fraud scheme. 

The Senate Ethics Committee later admonished Menendez in 2018 for having “knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts or significant value from Dr. Melgen without obtaining required Committee approval.” 

Prosecutors failed to secure a conviction of Menendez after his trial on bribery charges ended with a hung jury in 2017.