Democratic Senator Robert Menendez has claimed his innocence and refused to step down amid a rising refrain of calls to resign from his opponents and fellow celebration members. He claimed that gold and money uncovered throughout a search of his dwelling had been his private financial savings for a wet day.
“I acknowledge this would be the greatest struggle but… However as I’ve acknowledged all through this entire course of, I firmly imagine that when all of the information are introduced, not solely will I be exonerated, however I nonetheless shall be New Jersey’s senior senator,” Menendez mentioned on Monday in his first public remarks since he was charged in a federal case for his alleged corrupt relationship with three businessmen.
In keeping with the indictment, unsealed within the Manhattan federal court docket on Friday, the lawmaker and his spouse Nadine, obtained “tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in bribes in alternate for utilizing Menendez’s energy and affect as Senator” to serve the pursuits of a overseas state actor, particularly Egypt from no less than 2018 till 2022.
A search of Menendez’s dwelling yielded some $100,000-worth of gold bars, in addition to practically $500,000 in hidden money. Nonetheless, the lawmaker claimed that this “could appear old school, however these had been monies drawn from my private financial savings account, based mostly on the revenue that I had lawfully derived.”
The senator from New Jersey has been serving as chair of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee since early 2021, and has been an energetic proponent of sanctions on Russia ready by the US even earlier than the beginning of the Ukraine battle.
Menendez has served since 2006 and the brand new indictment is his second corruption scandal whereas in workplace. He’s up for reelection in 2024, which can complicate his celebration’s efforts to take care of its slim 51-49 majority within the Senate.
The chairman of the Democrats’ marketing campaign arm, Senator Gary Peters, joined the rising refrain of calls from present and former officers for Menendez’s resignation, saying on Tuesday that whereas Menendez “deserves to have a good authorized course of, given the intense nature of those costs and the way they’ve undermined the general public’s religion, he’s now not capable of serve successfully within the US Senate.”
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