Robert Menendez, the Democratic senator for New Jersey, will resign from the US Congress next month following threats from party colleagues to expel him after he was convicted of bribery charges, according to sources on his staff.
The former chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee will step down on 20 August amid an unrelenting campaign to persuade him to quit that intensified after he was convicted last week on 16 counts of corruption, including bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent.
A letter of resignation confirming his plan was said to be expected as early as Tuesday but had not been forthcoming at the time of publication.
Menendez’s decision to step down comes despite his plans to appeal last week’s verdict.
It may allow the Democrats to avoid a vicious intra-party battle for his Senate seat, which is up for re-election in November.
Phil Murphy, the New Jersey governor, is expected to appoint a caretaker senator who would hold the seat at least until next January. The favourite for the role would be Andy Kim, a Democratic member of Congress, who won the nomination for Menendez’s seat in a party primary last month, although Murphy could still give the seat to an alternative figure on a temporary basis.
Despite his resignation, Menendez could still contest the seat as an independent in November’s election, a move which could see it fall to the Republicans in a close race given the residue of local loyalty he retains, particularly among Latino voters.
The Democrats are locked in a fierce tussle with the GOP to retain control of the Senate in November’s poll.
Menendez’s conviction by a jury in a Manhattan courtroom followed evidence gleaned from a years-long investigation that he had accepted bribes, in the shape of cash and gold bars, in exchange for helping the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Damian Williams, the US attorney for New York’s southern district, said afterwards that the conviction brought Menendez’s “years of selling his office to the higher bidder … to an end”, per NBC News. He is scheduled to be sentenced on 29 October.
The campaign to persuade Menendez to stand down was spearheaded by some of his closest one-time allies, including his former protege and fellow New Jersey senator Cory Booker, who vowed to lead a fight to expel him if he did not resign voluntarily.
Waiting until August before going allows Menendez to receive another month of his Senate salary and health insurance, the New York Times reported, seen as crucial income sources at a time when his personal finances are in a state of collapse and his wife is undergoing cancer treatment.
