Sen. Bob Menendez to Resign Following Guilty Verdict

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·2 min read
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After months of battling it out in federal court — and in the court of public opinion — Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) will resign from his seat in Congress after being convicted on charges of bribery and corruption.

He will step down on Aug. 20, he announced in a letter released after several outlets broke the news on Tuesday. “While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict, I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work,” Menendez wrote.

Earlier this month, Menendez was found guilty on charges related to a bribery and improper foreign-aid scheme detailed by New York prosecutors over the course of three indictments.

Menendez was convicted on 16 felony counts including conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion, and acting as a foreign agent. Prosecutors alleged in September that Menendez and his wife, Nadine, “agreed to and did accept hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using Menendez’s power and influence as a senator to seek to protect and enrich” three businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes. Among the bribes accepted by the Menendez’s were envelopes of cash, solid bars of gold, and luxury vehicles.

Prosecutors leveled additional charges against Menendez related to the abuse of his elected office to unlawfully aid the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

From the moment Menendez was indicted, scores of Democrats in the Senate demanded his resignation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that Menendez would voluntarily vacate his position as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee “until the matter has been resolved.”

With Menendez facing a lengthy jail sentence, the fight to forcibly remove him from his seat threatened to get ugly, particularly with the looming specter of a Senate Ethics investigation. At least now Menendez won’t need to sit through an expulsion vote.

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