New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and other top Garden State Democrats are calling on Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez to resign – a sign of how quickly the senator’s political support may erode after Friday’s shocking indictment on federal bribery charges.
“The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Murphy would appoint a senator to replace Menendez should he resign. Menendez is up for reelection in 2024.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, are accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes,” including gold, cash and a luxury vehicle in exchange for the senator’s influence.
I read the indictment. They have text messages, they found envelopes with the DNA of one of the bribers in his house.
He Googled “how much does a kilo of gold cost” before accepting a bar of gold (whose serial number linked it to another briber), then phoned a state investigative agency to try to get a case dismissed, after which he went to have a celebratory dinner with the bribers (photo of them toasting each other with champagne).
He emailed an Egyptian national the breakdown of the US embassy staff in Cairo, and used his hold power over military exports to extract bribes.
They tried to delete these texts and emails. It goes on and on.
MAYBE it’s not technically illegal somehow or Clarence Thomas will spring him, but he absolutely does not belong in the Senate. This is not one photo, this is a very solid case of abuse of position and Chuck Schumer defending him is pathetic.
If you’re in the US, Call your Senators (particularly the Ds) and tell em to put it up for an expulsion vote. He’s gotta go. Now.
On the other hand, I think it’s noteworthy that “Senior Government Official Caught Accepting Gold Bars to Affect Policy Towards Egypt” could have been a news item, unchanged, 4000 years ago in Babylon. So that’s something.