FBI agents found more than $480,000 in cash in Bob Menendez’s home, stuffed into envelopes and coats. Some gold bars turned up too, worth more than $100,000. On Tuesday the New Jersey Democrat gave up his Senate seat.
The resignation, widely expected, came after a jury convicted him in July on 16 counts. Prosecutors said he took bribes, among them gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, in return for helping the Qatari and Egyptian governments. Menendez is 70. He faces sentencing in October and could receive a lengthy prison term.
He has not conceded anything. Menendez maintains his innocence and says he will appeal.
A late exit
For a time he refused to go. Calls to step down went unheeded, and until last week his name stayed on the ballot for re-election in November. His resignation letter to Governor Phil Murphy, sent last month, set Tuesday as the date.
“I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work,” Menendez wrote.
Murphy, also a Democrat, is expected to name a close ally, his former chief of staff George Samir Helmy, to the vacancy. Helmy would hold the seat until voters choose a successor in November.
The appeal begins
A day earlier, Menendez’s lawyers filed a 30-page motion asking a federal judge to throw out the verdict. It is the first step in what could become a long appeals process. The filing argued that “If sustained on such a surprisingly thin reed of evidence, these convictions will make terrible, dangerous law,” and concluded that “All of Senator Menendez’s convictions must be reversed.”
The nine-week trial turned on the question of what the gifts bought. Menendez’s lawyers said the items did not amount to bribes, since prosecutors never proved he took any specific action because of them. They also tried to push responsibility toward his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, describing her as financially troubled and out to “get cash and assets any way she could.” Some of the gold was shown to jurors as evidence.
Mrs Menendez faces bribery charges of her own. She has pleaded not guilty. Her trial was put back so she could undergo treatment for breast cancer.
Menendez first won election to the House of Representatives in 1993. He joined the Senate in 2006, appointed by John Corzine, who had given up the seat after being elected governor of New Jersey.
