Sen. Bob Menendez will not step down despite calls for his resignation after he was hit with federal corruption charges related to an alleged years-long bribery scheme, the New Jersey Democrat announced Friday.
“Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty,” Menendez, 69, said in a statement.
“I intend 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, who has served in the Senate since 2006, wildly claimed that his ethnicity is playing a role in calls for his ouster from the upper chamber.
“It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat,” he said.
“I am not going anywhere.”
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, 56, with three conspiracy counts on Friday in connection with what prosecutors call a “corrupt bribery agreement” that benefited the couple, three New Jersey businessmen and the government of Egypt.
The Democrat allegedly accepted a $60,000 Mercedes Benz C-Class sedan, 13 gold bars and $566,000 in cash in exchange for providing Egyptian officials with sensitive nonpublic US government information and lobbying US officials to release $300 million in aid to Cairo.
Prosecutors also say Menendez and his wife received mortgage payments, a recliner, exercise machines and other items in exchange for protecting the business interests of co-defendants Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, and shielding Uribe and Daibes from criminal investigations.
Menendez, while vowing to remain in the Senate, has stepped aside from his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “until the matter has been resolved,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Friday.
Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy demanded Menendez’s immediate resignation from the Senate amid the charges, calling the claims in the indictment “deeply disturbing” and “so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state.”
Other Democrats, including Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and former Attorney General Eric Holder, have also called on Menendez to resign.
What we know about Bob Menendez's indictment
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is facing federal corruption charges related to an alleged years-long scheme.
Menendez allegedly accepted bribes, including gold bars, in exchange for helping three businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, and the country of Egypt, according to officials.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine, were charged with taking hundreds of thousands in bribes, according to a Manhattan federal indictment.
When the feds raided Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home in June 2022, they found a 2019 Mercedes C-Class, at least 13 gold bars, and $566,000 in cash “stuffed in envelopes.” Another $70,000 in cash was found in Nadine’s safe deposit box.
The feds say Menendez also received mortgage payments and paid for a low-show or no-show job and home furnishings.
This isn’t the first time the 69-year-old Democrat is facing federal corruption charges. In 2015, Menendez was accused of taking gifts from Florida eye surgeon Salomon Melgen.
The “gifts” included a Paris vacation, flights on a private jet, and vacations at Melgen’s villa in the Dominican Republic.
Menendez dodged a previous federal indictment in 2017 after a jury deadlocked on corruption and bribery charges, resulting in a mistrial.
In that case, prosecutors alleged that the Garden State senator accepted nearly $1 million in private jet flights, vacations and other gifts from Florida ophthalmologist Dr. Salomon Melgen in exchange for acquiring visas for the doctor’s foreign girlfriends.
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Investigators also alleged that Menendez received hefty political donations in exchange for helping Melgen secure lucrative government contracts.
Menendez was also previously investigated for corruption in 2006 by then-New Jersey US Attorney Chris Christie over allegations that a nonprofit group rented space from him while he helped it secure grant money.
No charges were brought in that case and the investigation was closed in 2011.
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