By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz | New Jersey Monitor
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez is withdrawing his bid as an independent candidate for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, ending a once-storied political career marred by accusations and an eventual conviction on bribery and corruption charges.
Menendez, 70, informed the New Jersey Division of Elections by email last Friday afternoon in a letter that was publicly released by the Secretary of State’s office, which oversees elections. The deadline to withdraw from the Nov. 5 election is Friday at 11:59 p.m.
His withdrawal from the race comes four days before he was expected to resign. Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday morning that his former chief of staff, George Helmy, will fill the seat until voters pick a new senator in November.
“I am advising you that I wish to have my name withdrawn from the ballot,” Menendez wrote in an email sent to Donna Barber, acting director of the state Division of Elections.
Menendez, a Democrat, filed in June to run as an independent candidate while he sat almost daily in a Manhattan courthouse fighting 16 federal charges of bribery, extortion, acting as an agent of a foreign government, obstruction of justice, and fraud. In mid July, he was convicted on all counts.
He has steadfastly maintained his innocence since his September indictment and throughout his 10-week trial and vowed to appeal. Amid pressure from top Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Cory Booker, Menendez announced shortly after his conviction that he’d resign.
Menendez’s political career began at age 20, when he was elected to the Union City School Board of Education, and later served as Union City’s mayor. He was first appointed to the Senate in 2006 by then-Gov. Jon Corzine to fill a vacant seat. He was re-elected three times since then, eventually becoming chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, was well-known for fighting for immigrants’ rights and was revered by the Latino community. He also served on the finance and banking committees.
His latest criminal troubles weren’t his first. In 2015, he was charged with bribery for accepting gifts from Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor and major donor, in exchange for his political influence. That case ended in a 2017 mistrial, and Menendez was re-elected the following year.
In his current case, federal prosecutors in New York accused the senator last fall and in several superseding indictments of trying to disrupt the criminal probes and prosecutions of friends and associates, working to help his friends’ business interests, and doing political favors for Egypt and Qatar in exchange for cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and other valuables. In March, prosecutors added obstruction of justice charges, after Menendez repaid some of the money he and his wife Nadine received and claimed it was loans.
His trial began in May, with colorful testimony from powerful political players that revealed the senator’s secret meetings in steakhouses and stories of how advisors schemed to plant articles in the press. Menendez did not testify at the trial, and jurors found him guilty on all counts after three days of deliberations.
He was tried alongside two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, who were also convicted on all counts. A third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and testified against the three men. Nadine Menendez was also charged, but the judge delayed her trial indefinitely after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The senator, Hana, and Daibes are expected to be sentenced Oct. 29 in federal court in Manhattan.
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