Jurors found a powerful US senator guilty on all counts of corruption Tuesday after gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash were found at his home, prosecutors said, sparking calls for his resignation.
Robert Menendez, a 70-year-old Democrat from New Jersey, was charged with extortion, obstruction of justice and accepting bribes to perform favors for businessmen with connections to Egypt and Qatar and will be sentenced on October 29.
Menendez has vowed to appeal the verdict
A spokesman for the Southern District of New York prosecutor’s office said the total combined charges carry a maximum potential sentence of 222 years in prison.
The counts on which Menendez was convicted after less than three days of jury deliberations included conspiracy to commit bribery, acting as a foreign agent while a public official, and obstruction of justice.
Menendez said outside court, “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”
Menendez, who said in June he would run as an independent in November’s election, is a career politician and led the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee until the charges were filed. He remains a sitting senator.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow Democrat, called on Menendez to step down.
“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.
– Senator ‘for sale’ –
Menendez shook his head from side to side as the verdict was read out, CNN reported. Prosecutors have alleged Menendez put his power as a top US senator “up for sale.”
“This wasn’t politics as usual. This was politics for profit. And now that the jury has convicted Bob Menendez, his years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end,” US Attorney Damian Williams, a prosecutor, said outside court.
In a raid on Menendez’s New Jersey home, FBI agents were said to have found nearly $500,000 in cash hidden around the house, as well as gold bars worth around $150,000 and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible.
His wife Nadine Menendez, to whom defense lawyers are seeking to shift the blame, has also been charged but will be tried separately as she is receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Menendez was convicted alongside two of the businessmen he allegedly helped — Egyptian-American Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer.
A third businessman, insurance broker Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March and assisted investigators.
Menendez is said to have interfered in the nomination of New Jersey’s prosecutor in a bid to ensure that proceedings were dropped against Daibes and Uribe.
He is also accused of accepting bribes to use his power and influence to enrich his co-conspirators and benefit the government of Egypt, including by helping Hana protect his monopoly on US exports of halal food products to the country.
Hana and Daibes face 85 years and 100 years imprisonment respectively, prosecutors said.
“I reiterate my call for Senator Menendez to resign immediately after being found guilty of endangering national security,” said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who said the Senate should expel him if he refuses to go.
The assistant director of the FBI’s New York field office, Christie Curtis, told reporters outside court “public corruption investigations like this hold our leaders accountable and ensure they serve the public interest.”