Menendez convicted on bribery, foreign agent charges

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D) was found guilty of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and a slew of other charges in his federal corruption case Tuesday. 

The embattled Democrat and ex-chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee was convicted on all 16 counts he faced, from accepting luxurious bribes in exchange for his political clout to acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. The jury had been deliberating since Friday afternoon.

Two New Jersey businessmen tried alongside Menendez were also convicted on all counts. 

Menendez now stares down decades in prison while mounting an independent reelection bid for a fourth term in the upper chamber. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) have already called on their fellow Democrat to resign in the aftermath of the verdict.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Sen. Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said in a statement shortly after the verdict was read.

Murphy, who would be tasked with appointing Menendez’s temporary replacement should he cave to pressure to give up the seat in the upper chamber, echoed Schumer’s call. Menendez’s seat is up for election in November.

The New Jersey Democrat faced charges including bribery, extortion, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction of justice. He maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty, though he stepped away from his post leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted, in line with Senate Democratic Conference rules.

Menendez’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29, according to The New York Times. 

After the verdict was announced, Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, lauded prosecutors and law enforcement for bringing Menendez’s “shocking corruption” to an end. 

“This wasn’t politics as usual,” Williams said. “This was politics for profit. And now that a jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end.”

Menendez and his lawyer vowed to appeal.

“I have never violated my public oath,” Menendez said outside the courthouse. “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”

Federal prosecutors accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine, last year of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and lavish gifts from the two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, and a third businessman who pleaded guilty before the trial began. The businessmen benefited from Menendez’s political power in exchange for the bribes, prosecutors said. 

In several superseding indictments, the senator was accused of conspiring to act as a foreign agent of Egypt, accepting gifts from the Qatari government and conspiring to cover up the bribery scheme as prosecutors worked the case. 

Over several weeks, the government presented testimony that more than $486,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars were found in Menendez’s home by the FBI and showed evidence that Nadine Menendez frequently served as a go-between for her husband and the businessmen.

Nadine Menendez faces several charges herself, but her case was severed from the others after informing the court that she would undergo a surgical procedure for breast cancer. Her trial was scheduled for August before a judge indefinitely delayed it Monday. She has pleaded not guilty. 

Menendez’s attorneys sought to pin the blame on the senator’s wife at times, contending she hid her dealings with the businessmen from him.

Jose Uribe, the businessman who pleaded guilty, testified he thought he struck a quarter-million-dollar deal with Menendez in 2018 to pressure the New Jersey attorney general’s office to cease its investigation of his friends and family. His sentencing is set for October. 

Menendez did not take the stand to testify in his own defense, telling reporters last week that the government failed to prove “every aspect” of its case and that testifying would “give them another chance.”

Menendez previously faced federal corruption charges in 2015, but they were dropped after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

The Associated Press contributed. Zach Schonfeld contributed.

Updated at 3:18 p.m. EDT