Convicted New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez says he will resign

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey announced on Tuesday that he will resign, after being found guilty in a wide-ranging corruption scheme.

Menendez wrote in a letter that his resignation is effective Aug. 20. A spokesperson for the senator declined to comment.

An adviser to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he will move expeditiously to fill Menendez’s vacant seat once he leaves office.

The move comes just a week after Menendez became the first senator ever convicted of acting as a foreign agent. During the trial, prosecutors introduced evidence that Menendez traded on his influence, did favors for Egypt’s government and tried to help two New Jersey businessmen under criminal investigations in exchange for bribes — including gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Jurors deliberated for less than two full days before reaching their verdict.

The Senate ethics committee quickly began an investigation following the verdict, and Murphy called on Menendez to be expelled from the Senate if he did not resign.

Now the governor will appoint a Democrat to fill the seat until January, when the candidate who wins the November election will take office. The Democratic caucus has a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, giving the governor a strong incentive to act quickly.

New Jersey Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who ran an anti-corruption primary campaign for the Senate, is considered the frontrunner to win the general election in November and take the seat that Menendez has held since 2006. A Republican has not won election to the Senate in New Jersey in half a century.

Menendez sat out this year's Democratic primary race for his seat but had filed to run as an independent. After the verdict, he ducked reporters' questions about whether he might step down or mount a campaign.

"I am proud of the many accomplishments I've had on behalf of New Jersey," Menendez wrote in his letter, citing his efforts to help the Garden State recover from Superstorm Sandy and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as securing funding for the $16 billion Gateway project to build a new tunnel beneath the Hudson River.

He also reiterated he plans to appeal the verdict.

“I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country," Menendez said when leaving the courthouse last week. "I have never ever been a foreign agent."

The resignation ends a nearly 50-year career in politics. Menendez grew up in Union City, the child of Cuban refugees. He was first elected to the local school board at the age of 19. In 1982, he testified against the local party boss wearing a bulletproof vest. He eventually served as mayor of Union City, then in the state legislature and then on to Congress, beginning in 1992.

He was appointed to his senate seat in 2006 by Gov. Jon Corzine, who had left the senate to become governor. During his time in the senate, Menendez rose to become the chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the first Latino to do so. It was a perch where he wielded immense influence on policy toward Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and many other nations. But it was his role in foreign relations that would contribute to his downfall, when Egyptian military and intelligence officials bribed him in exchange for his support for U.S. weapons sales.

Charles Lane contributed reporting.