July 23 (UPI) — Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., announced his intention to resign his elected position after being convicted of corruption-related federal charges last week.
Menendez on Tuesday submitted his resignation letter and entered it into the record with Aug. 20 being the official date he will exit the Senate, The Hill, NBC News and the New York Post reported.
A jury in the Southern District of New York federal court in Manhattan on July 16 found Menendez and his two co-defendants guilty on all charges after deliberating for about two days.
Menendez, 70, was charged with 16 felony counts for using his influence while the former chairman of the Senate Foreign relations Committee to enact laws beneficial to Qatar, Egypt and wealthy benefactors, including his co-defendants.
Menendez held the Senate seat since 2006 and said he will appeal his conviction while facing up to 95 years in prison.
A third co-defendant pleaded guilty and testified against Menendez and the other two defendants, businessman Wael Hana and real estate mogul Fred Daibes.
Trucking and insurance businessman Jose Uribe pleaded guilty to seven charges in exchange for cooperating with investigators and testifying against Menendez.
The same jury that convicted Menendez also convicted Hana and Daibes on July 16.
The three men and Uribe have sentencing hearings scheduled for Oct. 29. Each faces up to 95 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors accused Menendez of accepting gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and other bribes to act on behalf of the New Jersey businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.
Investigators seized more than $480,000 in cash from Menendez’s home during a 2022 FBI raid.
Federal prosecutors successfully charged Menendez with extortion, bribery, acting as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice and conspiracy while he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2021 until resigning his chairmanship after being charged with felonies in September.
Hana was found guilty of giving Nadine Menendez, the wife of Sen. Menendez, a low-show job and paying off a mortgage in her name to influence the senator to protect his halal meat certification monopoly.
Nadine Menendez has her trial postponed while she undergoes treatment for breast cancer.
Daibes was accused of bribing Menendez with cash and gold bars to praise Qatar and influence a Qatari sheik to invest in a property owned by Daibes.
Daibes also is charged with bank fraud in a related matter and is scheduled to go to trial on Oct. 22.
U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., seeks election to Menendez’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat and won the Democratic primary.
Menendez earlier had said he would run for re-election as an independent candidate.
