Bob Menendez is found guilty of corruption

“THIS CASE HAS always been about shocking levels of corruption,” said Damian Williams, the federal attorney for the Southern District of New York. Even by New Jersey standards—and corruption is embarrassingly common in the Garden State—the allegations were indeed stunning. Bob Menendez, New Jersey’s Democratic senior senator, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, a Mercedes-Benz, mortgage payments and gold bars. On July 16th a jury found him guilty of 16 federal charges, which included bribery, fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and corruption.

There was more. Perhaps most damning, Mr Menendez was found guilty of acting as a foreign agent and sharing sensitive information with Egypt and Qatar while using his influence as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr Williams told reporters after the verdict that “this wasn’t politics as usual—this was politics for profit.”

Political corruption is not new to New Jersey. Harold Hoffman, a popular governor in the 1930s, confessed on his deathbed that he had stolen $300,000 from the state treasury while in office. Scores of public officials have been convicted of corruption in New Jersey, including mayors, state lawmakers, congressmen and senators. Mr Menendez continues that tradition and then some. (He is adamant that he did nothing wrong and intends to appeal.)

During the nine-week trial, the prosecution laid out a convincing case detailing how Mr Menendez committed corruption, sometimes directing his wife Nadine to act as an intermediary. They showed text messages, sometimes written in code, that he and Mrs Menendez wrote to each other. His lawyers, meanwhile, pointed the finger at his wife, blaming her for any perceived shadiness. This tactic left a bad taste in the mouths of many New Jerseyans, and possibly the jury’s. Mrs Menendez is also charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud and corruption, but her trial has been postponed indefinitely while she undergoes treatment for cancer.

Using fingerprints and DNA evidence, prosecutors traced thousands of dollars in cash from Mr Menendez to one of his two co-defendants, who were also found guilty on all counts. Serial numbers on some of the gold bars could also be traced back. The defence lawyers tried to explain away the piles of cash that the FBI found at Mr Menendez’s house—some of which had been stashed in jacket pockets, a boot and a plastic bag—by saying that hoarding money was part of his culture. They also said he was merely helping his constituents, not interfering in their criminal cases; and that he received gifts, not bribes, from his co-defendants. As for helping Egypt and Qatar, the information he shared with those countries was publicly available, they argued.

Mr Menendez may have hoped he was on firmer ground. He was indicted in 2015 on other corruption charges, but that trial ended in a hung jury in 2017. Courts in recent years, including the Supreme Court, have narrowed the definition of criminal bribery involving public officials. So his guilty verdict sends a powerful signal, says Micah Rasmussen of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics. “It is an interesting message to would-be corrupt politicians: no matter what else you’ve heard from the Supreme Court, we will still make the case against you.”

Politically, the senator’s career is over, even if he is successful on appeal. “In the eyes of his colleagues, he’s clearly guilty,” says Ashley Koning of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Mr Menendez voluntarily gave up his chairmanship after the indictment but, remarkably, remains a senator, still sits on the Foreign Relations Committee and is running as an independent for re-election in November. “There really is no set rule for what happens” after a politician is convicted, says Daniel Weiner of the Brennan Centre, a think-tank.

Now that the guilty verdict is in, Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has called on the senator to step down and “do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country and resign”. As Mr Weiner says, “It is a bad look to have a member of your caucus who is a convicted crook.” Typically, if someone is convicted of a serious crime they resign under pressure. Expulsions are vanishingly rare. But if Mr Menendez refuses to go, that last disgrace may well await him.

If the seat is vacated Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s governor, will appoint an interim senator. Andy Kim, the front-runner in the Senate race who comfortably won the Democratic primary last month, said he would accept the seat if offered. He has promised to restore integrity to the job. ■

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