Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez tells allies he will resign after corruption conviction

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has told allies he will resign from Congress after being convicted of federal corruption charges, two people with direct knowledge of the conversations told NBC News.

Menendez, who for months resisted calls from dozens of Democratic senators to resign, appears to have finally relented after the guilty verdict and growing threats to expel him if he refuses. He is calling on his allies to resign, the people said, which would end a three-decade career in Congress that included chairing powerful committees, writing major legislation and facing two criminal trials on corruption allegations.

Among those who urged him to resign were Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Senate Majority Leader Dick DurbinD-Ill.; and Menendez’s friend and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said in a statement after Menendez’s latest corruption trial ended in guilty verdicts.

The senator was convicted Tuesday on 16 federal counts related to using his official position to enrich three New Jersey businessmen and benefit the Egyptian and Qatari governments. In exchange, the couple received generous bribes, including “cash, gold bullion, mortgage payments, compensation for little or no job performance, a luxury vehicle and other valuables,” prosecutors said.

If Menendez resigns, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who was among the first Democrats to call for Menendez’s resignation, will appoint a senator to temporarily complete his term, which ends in January 2025.

Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw are running in the November general election to take Menendez’s Senate seat. Menendez ran for the seat as an independent and said he would continue the campaign if he was exonerated.

Menendez’s political career stretches back nearly four decades, to the mid-1980s, when he became mayor of Union City. He served 13 years in the House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in 2006. He twice served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post he relinquished last year after his indictment. But he remained a voting member of the committee and the Senate as a whole, even as he was accused of abusing his power to favor foreign governments.

Menendez and his wife, Nadine, were charged in September with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official duty, according to the original indictment against him.

Weeks later, he was charged with accepting bribes from a foreign government and conspiring to act as a foreign agent. Menendez “provided sensitive information to the United States government and took other actions that covertly assisted the Egyptian government,” according to the indictment.

Menendez has denied the charges against him, saying in a statement that he faces “an active smear campaign” and that prosecutors “distorted the normal work of a congressional office.” He has since said he will appeal his conviction.

In a public statement in September, he said the $480,000 in cash investigators found hidden in envelopes throughout his home was money he had saved for decades to use “in case of an emergency.”

In 2015, Menendez was also indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from allegations that he accepted favors from a wealthy Florida optometrist, including travel, lodging and political contributions. The case ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. In 2018, prosecutors opted not to retry Menendez after the judge in the case dismissed some of the original charges.

Menendez is the first sitting senator in U.S. history to be indicted on two unrelated criminal charges, according to records compiled by the Senate Historical Office.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has been one of the Senate’s most prominent advocates for immigration reform and co-authored the 2013 “Gang of 8” bill, a bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed the Senate and failed in the House. Last year, he introduced a framework for immigration reform that included creating new pathways to citizenship amid ongoing concerns about the number of migrants crossing the southern border.