Several more Senate Democrats called Tuesday for Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., to resign after he was indicted last week on bribery and corruption charges, including his longtime friend and fellow New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
“For nearly a decade, I’ve worked in the Senate alongside Senator Menendez. As New Jersey’s junior Senator, I imagine that I’ve had more professional experiences with him than most others, and I’ve witnessed his extraordinary work and boundless work ethic,” Booker said in a statement, before calling the allegations against him “shocking” with “specific, disturbing details of wrongdoing.”
“The details of the allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with in order to be effective have been shaken to the core,” Booker said.
“Senator Menendez fiercely asserts his innocence and it is therefore understandable that he believes stepping down is patently unfair. But I believe this is a mistake,” he said, adding that “stepping down is best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving.”
The additional calls bring the total number of Democratic senators calling for him to step down to 13. On Monday, Menendez defended himself in public remarks and pleaded with his colleagues for time. Several senators — including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Jon Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania — are up for re-election in 2024, as is Menendez. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who won a tough Senate race last year, also called for Menendez to step down.
Of the group up for re-election next year, Tester, Brown, Baldwin, Rosen and Casey face competitive elections in crucial swing states ahead of an election where Democrats will struggle to maintain control of the chamber.
In a statement Tuesday, Sen. Rosen said the charges against Menendez are “well-documented” and “a violation of the public trust.
“While he is entitled to due process and a fair trial, this is a distraction that undermines the bipartisan work we need to do in the Senate for the American people,” Rosen said.
Sens. Tester and Baldwin called the charges against their longtime colleague “deeply disturbing” and “deeply troubling,” respectively.
“While Sen. Menendez enjoys the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and will have his day in court to defend himself, I believe it’s best for his constituents, the American people, and our national security for the Senator to step down,” Baldwin said.
The indictment charges that Menendez and his wife Nadine accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes in return for his influence to benefit three New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian government.
Prosecutors said investigators found $480,000 in cash hidden around his home, including some in envelopes that “contained the fingerprints and/or DNA” of one of the people charged with bribing him or that person’s driver. They also said Menendez and his wife were also bribed with a luxury car, exercise equipment, home furnishings “over one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of gold bars.”
Menendez and his wife have both denied wrongdoing. In his remarks Monday, he said the cash was his and he’d been withdrawing thousands of dollars from his savings account for decades in case of “emergencies.”
“All I humbly ask for in this moment, in my colleagues in Congress, the elected leaders and the advocates of New Jersey that I have worked with for years, as well as each person who calls New Jersey home, is to pause and allow for all the facts to be presented,” Menendez said in his remarks, where he also predicted he’d be cleared of the charges against him and “still will be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
The first of his colleagues to ask him to step down was Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Saturday. Casey, the state’s senior senator, joined him on Tuesday.
“Public service is a sacred trust. The specific allegations set forth in the federal indictment indicate to me that Senator Menendez violated that trust repeatedly,” Casey said.
Menendez is also facing calls to resign from numerous local officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, and from Democrats in the House, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., announced over the weekend that he would challenge Menendez for his seat.
A spokesman for Fetterman, Joe Calvello, said Monday the first-term Pennsylvania senator would be returning the $5,000 in donations Menendez gave to his 2022 campaign “in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
