Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has been charged with obstruction of justice in a far-reaching corruption case focused on whether he used his influence as New Jersey’s senior senator to enrich himself and his wife.
The Justice Department first charged Menendez in September, accusing him of benefitting the governments of Egypt and then Qatar in his capacity as a senator. Until the indictment, Menendez served as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The latest indictment, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, adds to the cloud of scandal surrounding the senator as he weighs whether to run for another term in the Senate.
Just days earlier, one of his associates, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to bribing the senator’s wife in exchange for his intervention in a state insurance fraud investigation.
That alleged favor — his wife Nadine is said to have accepted a Mercedes-Benz from Uribe — is just one of several salacious details that have emerged from an investigation in which federal authorities recovered gold bars and half a million in cash from his home.
Menendez denies all of the allegations against him and his wife, and the senator has denounced the investigation as driven by a long-standing political vendetta against him. Menendez was also investigated for corruption starting in 2015, but the charges were dropped after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
He won his last race in 2018, shortly after the first Justice Department investigation was closed. But the latest allegations have isolated him within the Senate — many of his fellow Democrats have called for his resignation — and produced two credible challengers to his seat: Tammy Murphy, the wife of Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ), and progressive Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ).
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Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), in particular, has needled the senator for not resigning, dubbing him “Gold Bars Bobby” over the charges.
Menendez’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
