Gov. Murphy, NJ legislative leaders urge indicted Bob Menendez to resign from Senate

State leaders on Friday called for Sen. Bob Menendez to resign after federal prosecutors announced that he faces bribery charges.

Governor Phil Murphy called for fellow Democrat Menendez to step down, and said in a statement that the “allegations in the indictment against Senator Menendez and four other defendants are deeply disturbing.”

“These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system, Murphy said. "Under our legal system, Senator Menendez and the other defendants have not been found guilty and will have the ability to present evidence disputing these charges, and we must respect the process.

“However, the alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state,” Murphy said.

Members of the state's congressional delegation have also issued statements calling for Menendez to resign, including Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill and Congressmen Bill Pascrell, Frank Pallone and Andy Kim.

Legislative leaders join call for Menendez to resign

Murphy’s legislative counterparts echoed the sentiment, with state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin saying that the charges “go against everything we should believe as public servants.”

“We are given the public's trust, and once that trust is broken, we cannot continue," Coughlin said. "Though I know that this indictment is an accusation, not a conviction, and the Senator has the right to defend himself from these charges, I believe Senator Menendez must immediately step down and allow New Jersey, and America, to move forward.”

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State Senate President Nick Scutari said that it is a “sad day for our state and that the “allegations laid out in today's indictment are alarming, and they raise serious questions about the Senator's ability to continue to serve.”

The three-count indictment alleged that Menendez, his wife Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and the three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — were part of a bribery scheme.

Full indictment: Read the full text of the Sen. Menendez indictment here

The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez, who serves as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his wife “engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe and Daibes” to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his “power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt.”

Attorney General Platkin weighs in

State Attorney General Platkin also weighed in. "The allegations are deeply disturbing to me and my office, and we are already in the process of reviewing the concerns raised by the indictment," he said.

According to the indictment, Menendez tried to disrupt a criminal investigation and prosecution undertaken by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office related to associates of Uribe, who was a friend of Hana and developed a relationship with Menendez and his wife in 2018.

In exchange, Hana and Uribe helped buy a Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible for Nadine Menendez worth more than $60,000 in 2019, according to the indictment.

The alleged activity occurred before Platkin became state Attorney General. He said his office is "engaged in our own independent internal inquiry into the allegations set forth in the indictment."

"Public corruption at any level will not be tolerated by me or my office," Platkin said. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to root out corruption wherever it occurs."

More: Could Menendez resign amid corruption indictment? How would his Senate seat get filled?

Menendez denies allegations

The senior senator has denied the allegations and issued a statement in response to the calls for his resignation saying that he intends to "continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades."

"This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along," Menendez said in a statement. "It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.”

Earlier in the day, the senator had said in a statement that the prosecutors "misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office" and have "attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met."

“Those behind this campaign simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. senator and serve with honor and distinction," Menendez 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 that the prosecutors "wrote these charges as they wanted" and that the "facts are not as presented." He also said that he is "confident that this matter will be successfully resolved once all of the facts are presented and my fellow New Jerseyans will see this for what it is."

While he has not resigned, Menendez did step down from his post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Friday.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bob Menendez indictment: Phil Murphy calls for resignation