Following the unsealing of a major indictment in federal court last Friday, more than a dozen Democrats in the Senate called for Sen. Bob Menendez’s resignation.
In light of federal corruption accusations related to his international contacts with the Egyptian government, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker issued a statement on Tuesday calling for his colleague Robert Menendez to resign.
Booker said in a statement that his resignation was not an admission of guilt but rather a recognition of the high personal cost of public service. Senator Menendez has been there and done that in the name of service. In this instance, he’ll need to do it once more. He said he believes Senator Menendez’s resignation would be best for the people he has spent his life representing.
By Tuesday lunchtime, 13 fellow Senate Democrats have asked Menendez to quit.
Kelly, Bennett, Brown, Fetterman, Booker, Welch, Tester, Casey, Baldwin, Klobuchar, Heinrich, Rosen, and Warren are some of the senators who have been mentioned.
In addition to the dozen Democrats in the Senate, several representatives, including Nancy Pelosi, have called for Menendez to resign.
Menendez said he would be cleared of all charges at a press conference on Monday. He stated that those who value fairness hold that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He intends to continue working hard for the people of New Jersey, as he has “for the past half-century.”
Menendez then pulled the race card, saying he was aware of the impatience with which certain people judge a Latino and try to remove him from his seat. He said he had no plans to leave.
At a press conference held at Hudson County Community College in Union City, New Jersey, the senator made his first public appearance since a federal indictment charging him, his wife Nadine, and three New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes, with participating in a bribery scheme spanning years was unsealed in the Southern District of New York on Friday.
Since 2018, three businesses have reportedly paid bribes to federal officials in cash, gold, a Mercedes-Benz, and other valuables, according to federal prosecutors. The bribes were produced so Menendez would use his position to help the Egyptian government and businesspeople.
