More voices add to the resignation of Senator Bob Menendez and now Senator Cory Booker, his colleague from New Jersey, is calling for the resignation of Menendez, who faces allegations of bribery to benefit businessmen and the government of Egypt.
Democrat Cory Booker, the other federal senator from New Jersey, joins the voices calling for the resignation of Bob Menendez, following allegations of bribery to benefit businessmen and the government of Egypt.
“I believe resigning is in the best interest of those whom Senator Menendez has served his entire life,” Booker said in a statement.
Booker said Menendez’s resignation is not “admitting guilt.”
“Resigning is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment that holding public office often requires tremendous sacrifices at great personal cost,” he adds.
The other New Jersey senator joined Democratic and Republican voices calling for the resignation of Menendez, who faces indictments in the Southern District of New York, confirmed last Friday by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Honorary Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has also joined the voices calling for Menendez to step down.
“It would probably be a good idea for him to resign,” Pelosi said last week.
It should be recalled that Menendez temporarily left the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, as confirmed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York), who defended his Democratic colleague last week.
So far eight Democratic senators have called for Menendez’s resignation, the first being John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), followed by Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pennsylvania), Peter Welch (Vermont), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Jon Tester (Montana), Jacky Rosen (Nevada) and now Booker.
In the House of Representatives some voices have been raised against Menendez, such as Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York).
Also the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy (California), said Menendez should resign.
Explanation sparks more doubts
On Monday, Senator Menendez held a press conference where he charged that he is “persecuted” for speaking out, but he did not specify who was “persecuting” him politically, although he said that the indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has given his critics grounds.
“Instead of all the facts being presented, others have rushed to judgment on me because they see a political opportunity for themselves and those around them,” he charged.
Menendez and his wife Nadine are accused of receiving thousands of dollars in exchange for using the senator’s power to benefit businessmen Wael “Will” Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibe.
Prosecutor Williams also noted that Menendez allegedly requested “highly classified” information, which ended up in the possession of the Egyptian government, to benefit that country with U.S. government assistance.
In his press conference, Menendez said that the $480,000 dollars found in his residence by the FBI is money he has taken out of his savings account during 30 years of work, but he did not justify where the gold bars also found in his home came from.