Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez He will step down next month after being found guilty on all 16 charges in a federal bribery and corruption probe.
The New Jersey senator made his decision official in a letter to Gov. Bill Murphy on Tuesday.
“This is to advise you that I will be resigning as United States Senator from New Jersey effective the close of business on August 20, 2024,” Menendez said in the letter. A copy was obtained by NBC News.
He said he chose that date “to allow my staff to transition to other possibilities, transfer pending constituent files, allow an orderly process to select an interim replacement, and close my Senate affairs.”
Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement that he had received the letter and that he would “do my duty to make a temporary appointment to the U.S. Senate to ensure that the people of New Jersey are adequately represented.”
Two sources familiar with the matter said earlier on Tuesday that Menendez had communicated his resignation plans to some of his employees. His departure date was earlier reported Via the New Jersey Globe.
As NBC News first reported last week, Menendez began calling on allies after he was convicted on July 16 of taking bribes, including gold bars and cash, for official business dealings to benefit Qatar and Egypt. He will be sentenced on October 29 and has promised to appeal.
Nearly every Democratic senator, House members and other key elected officials in New Jersey have called for Menendez to resign from his position, making it impossible for him to continue. Some threatened a vote to expel him from the Senate if he did not voluntarily leave.
Menendez is also under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, which said in a statement Monday that it had initiated a “judgment review,” a necessary step before recommending the senator’s outright expulsion or discipline. The committee said it had notified Menendez and his attorneys that the committee had unanimously voted to open the review.
Menendez cited the investigation as one of the reasons for his resignation. “While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict through all avenues, including the Supreme Court, I do not want the Senate to engage in a protracted process that would distract from its important work,” his letter said.
Rep. Andy Kim, DN.J., is running for Menendez’s seat in November against Republican Curtis Pasha. Menendez has filed to run for re-election as an independent.
Before being elected to Congress in 1992, Menendez served as mayor of Union City, New Jersey, and in the state legislature. After serving in the House, he became a senator in 2006 and rose to head the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee. From that perch (and as a ranking member of the committee when Republicans controlled the Senate) he offered favors to foreign governments in exchange for bribes, jurors found.
The New Jersey senator was charged in a separate corruption case that ended in a mistrial in 2018; He had also denied wrongdoing in that case.
