Senators split on advice
Gillibrand says Menendez should resign; Schumer calls for due process in case
ALBANY — U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is the latest senator to call for the resignation of fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez following his indictment on federal bribery charges last week along with his wife and three New Jersey businessmen.
Gillibrand, speaking to reporters in New York City on Tuesday, expressed her view after U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, New Jersey’s junior senator, issued his own statement calling for Menendez’s resignation. More than a dozens senators have called on Menendez to step down.
“I share Sen. Booker’s views that he should step down,” Gillibrand
told reporters. Her office did not issue a formal statement on the matter.
Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is charged with bribery in a case being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. He has vigorously denied the allegations, which include that he took cash and gold in an illegal exchange for helping Egypt and several New Jersey business associates. The senator and his wife Nadine are both accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
The allegations include that Menendez was paid to pressure a senior U.S. Department of Agriculture official to protect a business monopoly granted by Egypt to co-defendant Wael Hana;
that he sought to disrupt a criminal case against Jose Uribe, another co-defendant, by the New Jersey attorney general’s office, and that he tried to disrupt a federal criminal prosecution of businessman Fred Daibes, also a co-defendant.
When the indictment was made public on Friday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called for Menendez’s resignation; if the senator resigns before the end of his term, Murphy, a Democrat, can appoint a replacement.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Charles E. Schumer stopped short of calling for Menendez to resign and said Menendez should be afforded “due process.” He issued a statement Friday noting the senator had “rightly decided to step down temporarily from his position as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee until the matter has been resolved.”
“Bob Menendez has been a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey,” Schumer said.
By calling for Menendez’s resignation, Gillibrand departs from the stance of Schumer, who won reelection last year.
Gillibrand is up for reelection in 2024. She was appointed by Gov. David Patterson to first serve in the Senate in 2009 when Hillary Clinton departed her elected position in Congress to become U.S. secretary of state.