Sen. Bob Menendez to resign next month following conviction in federal corruption trial

(WASHINGTON) — New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez will resign his office on Aug. 20 following the conviction in his federal corruption trial, according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

Murphy, who will select an interim replacement, said Tuesday afternoon he has received Menendez’s resignation letter.

In the resignation letter to Murphy, obtained by ABC News, Menendez said he intends to appeal the verdict but does not want the “Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work.”

“Furthermore, I cannot preserve my rights upon a successful appeal, because factual matters before the ethics committee are not privileged. This is evidenced by my Committee’s Staff Director and Chief Council being called to testify at my trial,” he stated in the letter.

Menendez said in his letter that the Aug. 20 date will “give time for my staff to transition to other possibilities, transfer constituent files that are pending, allow for an orderly process to choose an interim replacement, and for me to close out my Senate affairs.”

Staff members were informed of the senator’s decision earlier Tuesday, multiple sources told ABC News.

A Manhattan federal jury found the New Jersey Democrat guilty on all charges, including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction, on July 16 following a two-month-long trial. Federal prosecutors said he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator’s political clout.

Menendez was not required to resign due to the conviction.

Following the guilty verdict, several political leaders called for Menendez’s immediate resignation, including Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said at the time.

Sen. Cory Booker, Menendez’s New Jersey counterpart, and Murphy had also joined in the calls for his immediate resignation. Murphy said at the time that he would call on the U.S. Senate to expel him if the senator refused to resign and make a temporary appointment in the event of a vacancy.

Menendez is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29 and faces decades in prison.

Following the verdict, he vowed to appeal his conviction. He told reporters he was “deeply disappointed” by the jury’s decision while maintaining his innocence.

“I have never violated my oath,” Menendez said outside the courthouse following the verdict. “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”

He added that the jury’s decision would “put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.”

Menendez, who served as senator for New Jersey since 2006, became the first sitting member of Congress to be charged with conspiracy by a public official to act as a foreign agent.

He refused to resign following the initial indictment in September 2023 despite calls from a majority of Democrats to do so, though he did step down as the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In June, he filed a petition to get on the U.S. Senate ballot in New Jersey as an independent candidate.

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