Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey stepped down as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee on Friday after being served with a federal indictment over corruption charges.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Friday afternoon that Menendez “has rightly decided to step down temporarily from his position as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee until the matter has been resolved,” according to Politico.
Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, is in line to take the top spot on the committee, but he has announced he will retire at the end of his current term.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, are charged on three counts, including conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, bribery and extortion.
“Those bribes included cash, gold payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” allegedly in exchange for the senator’s influence, which benefitted three New Jersey businessmen and the country of Egypt, the indictment, uploaded by The New York Times, stated.
The businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — are also facing charges.
The indictment alleged that Menendez, a Democrat, “provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps that secretly aided” Egypt.
He also pressured an official from the U.S. Agriculture Department to protect the business monopoly that Hana had, which was granted to him by the Egyptian government, and used his power to disrupt the New Jersey attorney general’s investigation into Uribe.
“My office remains firmly committed to rooting out public corruption without fear or favor and without any regard to partisan politics,” U.S. Attorney Damien Williams, who filed the indictment, said in a press conference. “This investigation is very much ongoing. We are not done.”
Federal agents conducted a search of the Menendez family’s home and said they found over $480,000 in cash in envelopes, clothing in the closets, over $100,000 worth of gold bars, a luxury vehicle in the garage, and $70,000 in a safe deposit box under their name.
Menendez issued a statement following the indictment, saying the federal prosecutors are misrepresenting his work in office.
He previously faced felony charges over corruption in 2017. The jury ended up in a deadlock, leading the judge to declare a mistrial. Federal prosecutors never retired the case.
“I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent,” Menendez said in his statement, adding that he is “confident that this matter will be successfully resolved once all of the facts are presented.”
Meanwhile, a lawyer for his wife said: “Mrs. Menendez denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court,” according to Politico.