Later Monday morning, Sen. Bob Menendez is expected to make his first public remarks since being charged with bribery in a federal indictment unsealed in New York on Friday.
Menendez was expected to announce his plans to seek re-election to the U.S. Senate at a Monday press conference at Hudson County Community College’s Union City campus.
New Jersey’s senior senator was indicted for the second time in a decade on corruption charges for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble, according to an indictment unsealed in New York.
What does the Menendez indictment say?
Bribes allegedly included cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz — much of which is detailed in photographs in the 39-page indictment.
Menendez’s wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, was also indicted in the alleged scheme. The three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — have been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.
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.”
NJ Democrats call for Menendez to resign from Senate
Leading New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy, Attorney General Matt Platkin and several members of the Congressional delegation, called on Menendez to resign on Friday.
“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.
On Friday, Menendez denied the allegations and issued a statement in response to the calls for his resignation 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.”
Menendez did step down from his post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Friday.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
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