Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., will resign next month after he was found guilty on all 16 counts in a federal bribery and corruption trial.
Menendez officially informed Gov. Phil Murphy of his decision in a letter Tuesday.
“This is to advise you that I will be resigning from my office as the United States Senator from New Jersey, effective on the close of business on August 20, 2024,” Menendez said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.
He said he chose that date to “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.”
Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement that he’d received the letter and that he will “exercise my duty to make a temporary appointment to the United States Senate to ensure the people of New Jersey have the representation they deserve.”
Two sources familiar with the matter said earlier Tuesday that Menendez had informed some of his staff members of his plans. The New Jersey Globe first reported his departure date.
As NBC News first reported last week, Menendez had begun telling allies in calls that he would step down from the Senate after a jury convicted him on July 16 of accepting bribes, including gold bars and cash, for official actions to benefit Qatar and Egypt. He is set to be sentenced Oct. 29 and has vowed to appeal.
Nearly every Democratic senator, as well as House members and other key elected officials in New Jersey, had said Menendez needed to resign, making it untenable for him to continue. Some had threatened to force a vote to expel him from the Senate if he didn’t leave voluntarily.
Menendez is also under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, which said in a statement Monday that it had initiated an “adjudicatory review,” a required step before it makes a recommendation to the full Senate to expel or otherwise discipline a senator. The committee said it had notified Menendez and his attorneys that the committee had unanimously voted to open the review.
Menendez cited the probe as one of the reasons he was resigning. “While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict, all the way and including to the Supreme Court, I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work,” his letter said.
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., is running for Menendez’s seat in November against Republican Curtis Bashaw. Menendez has filed to run for re-election as an independent, saying he would continue the campaign if he were exonerated.
Menendez was mayor of Union City, New Jersey, and was in the state Legislature before he was elected to the House in 1992. He became a senator in 2006 and rose to become chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee. It’s from that perch (and as the ranking member on the panel when Republicans controlled the Senate) that he provided favors to foreign governments in exchange for bribes, jurors found.
He was charged in a separate corruption case that ended in a mistrial in 2018; he had also denied wrongdoing in that case.
Frank Thorp V and Dareh Gregorian contributed.
