Pressure Mounts for Bob Menendez to Resign as 16-Count Conviction Sparks Talk of Expulsion
Amid mounting pressure by Democrats for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), 70, to resign after his 16 federal count conviction on Tuesday, July 16th, it is still unclear if Menendez will acquiesce. Some Democrats are considering expulsion, including fellow Senator Jon Tester (D-MN), who called for Menedez’s expulsion on X.
Bob Menendez’s political career spans half a century. It started at age 19 when he won his first appointment with the Union City, New Jersey Board of Education in 1974. He became Mayor of Union City, New Jersey, in 1986, went on to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, and was appointed to the Senate by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine in 2006. Menedez was sworn in as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2013 and has held the position since.
However, Tuesday’s conviction has abruptly halted his career, and the Democrats are now intensifying their efforts to force Menendez to step down.
Bob Menendez, along with four co-defendants, including his wife, Nadine Menendez, 57, and three other businessmen: Wael Hana, 40, the owner of a monopoly that ensures Islamic compliance when exporting meat to Egypt; Fred Daibes, 66, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer; and Jose Uribe, 57, an insurance broker, were all charged in federal court in 2023. The charges included bribery, with Bob Menendez receiving over $480,000 in cash and Nadine Menendez receiving over $70,000 in cash. Hana and Baibes also provided the Menendez couple with over $100,000 in gold bars and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible from Uribe.
The gifts were alleged to have been given in exchange for protection from a federal fraud case against Daibes and an insurance fraud case against Uribe. Menedez also used his position in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to expedite access to millions of dollars of U.S. Military funds to Egypt, said prosecutors.
Menendez was officially convicted after a nine-week long trial on Tuesday, July 16th, of 16 federal counts, including bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, and acting as a foreign agent to Egypt between the years of 2018-2022. Hana was convicted on six federal counts, and Daibes was convicted on seven federal counts, but Uribes pled guilty and agreed to testify against the others in the hopes of a lesser sentence. Nadine Menendez’s federal trial is on hold as she undergoes treatment and recovery from breast cancer.
Despite the conviction, Menendez maintains his innocence and insists that he was only doing his job as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At the time of writing, Democratic Senators like Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker have called for Menendez to resign, but he hasn’t yet taken that step, and there are conflicting reports about whether he will.
If Menendez doesn’t resign, there is already talk of expelling him from the Senate, which hasn’t happened since the Senate expelled Senator William Lorimer in July of 1912. As of the most current reporting, Andy Kim is the Democratic frontrunner to replace Menendez, according to PBS.
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