Bob Menendez to quit US Senate after bribery conviction

Bob Menendez is to resign from the US Senate, according to CBS, after being convicted of accepting bribes including gold bars to help foreign governments.

The New Jersey Democrat had been resisting resignation calls – including from Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer. His resignation comes a day after the Senate’s ethics committee began a review on his expulsion.

Menendez – formerly the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – was found guilty on 16 counts related to corruption. He faces decades in prison.

The 70-year-old maintains his innocence, saying outside court after his conviction that he “never violated my public oath”. He is to be sentenced on 29 October.

CBS, the BBC’s US partner, said Menendez’s resignation will be effective from 20 August.

A late August resignation would allow him to collect at least another month of his Senate salary and health insurance, at a time when his finances are stretched and his wife, Nadine, is undergoing cancer treatment, The New York Times reported.

The BBC has contacted Menendez’s office for comment.

Menendez says he will appeal against his conviction, saying he has “every faith” that the facts “did not sustain” the guilty verdict.

Menendez was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993. He was later appointed to the Senate in 2006 by John Corzine, who resigned his seat after being elected governor of New Jersey.

While previous bribery and conspiracy charges ended in a mistrial in 2017, prosecutors were this time able to convince that Menendez accepted bribes – including gold bars and a Mercedes – in exchange for helping the Qatari and Egyptian governments.

The trial against his wife on bribery and obstruction charges have been postponed indefinitely while she recovers from breast cancer surgery.

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