In a significant blow to Bob Menendez’s hopes of staying in the US Senate while under indictment for corruption, Cory Booker – his fellow New Jersey Democrat – joined calls for the senator to resign.
“The details of the allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with in order to be effective have been shaken to the core,” Booker said on Tuesday.
Booker, who has been in the US Senate since 2013, added: “I believe stepping down is best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving.”
By early afternoon, more than a dozen Democratic senators had called for Menendez to quit.
Menendez, 69, was elected to the Senate in 2006. He survived a previous corruption investigation, which was dropped in 2017 after a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Last week, Menendez was charged with using his position as chair of the Senate foreign relations committee to profit by assisting the government of Egypt, through three businessmen in his home state.
The senator and his wife are alleged to have taken bribes including gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz car and more than $500,000 in cash.
On Monday, speaking to reporters in Union City, Menendez said the cash was from his savings.
“For 30 years,” he said, “I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings accounts, which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.
“Now this may seem old-fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings accounts based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years. I look forward to addressing other issues in trial.”
He did not mention the gold bars or the car or say if he planned to seek re-election. He ignored questions from reporters.
“Everything I’ve accomplished, I’ve worked for despite the naysayers and everyone who has underestimated me,” Menendez said.
“I recognise this will be the biggest fight yet, but as I have stated throughout this whole process, I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
To those calling for his resignation, he said: “The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. Those who rushed to judgment, you have done so based on a limited set of facts framed by the prosecution to be as salacious as possible. Remember, prosecutors get it wrong.”
Then, only one Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, had joined influential Democrats including the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, and the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in calling for Menendez to quit.
Many observers turned their gaze to Booker, a Menendez ally and high-profile Democrat who ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020.
Politico observed: “Menendez might stick around no matter what Booker says, but if Booker calls for Menendez’s resignation it will make it safer and easier for every other Democrat who has remained mum to do the same. On the other hand, a supportive statement from Booker will be worth its weight in gold.”
On Tuesday, Booker followed other Democratic senators – Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Peter Welch of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jacky Rosen of Nevada – in saying Menendez should go.
“For nearly a decade,” Booker said, “I’ve worked in the Senate alongside Senator Menendez … I’ve witnessed his extraordinary work and boundless work ethic. I’ve consistently found Senator Menendez to be intellectually gifted, tough, passionate and deeply empathic. We have developed a working relationship and a friendship.”
Saying the new indictment “contains shocking allegations of corruption and specific, disturbing details of wrongdoing”, Booker said he found that “hard to reconcile with the person I know”. He expected Menendez to mount “a vigorous defence”, he said.
But, he said, “there is [a] higher standard for public officials, one not of criminal law but of common ideals. As senators, we operate in the public trust … The allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with … have been shaken to the core.
“… Stepping down is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment that holding public office often demands tremendous sacrifices at great personal cost. Senator Menendez has made these sacrifices in the past to serve. And in this case he must do so again.”
Other Democratic senators followed in Booker’s footsteps.
They included Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.
Jon Tester of Montana, a senator widely seen as vulnerable in his re-election fight next year, said: “I’ve read the detailed charges against Senator Menendez and find them deeply disturbing.
“While he deserves a fair trial like every other American, I believe Senator Menendez should resign for the sake of the public’s faith in the US Senate.”
