A jury found a powerful US senator guilty on all counts of corruption on Tuesday after gold bricks and millions of dollars in cash were recovered from his home, prompting calls for his resignation, prosecutors said.
Robert Menendez, a 70-year-old New Jersey Democrat, is charged with extortion, obstruction of justice and taking bribes to benefit businessmen with ties to Egypt and Qatar and is scheduled to be sentenced on October 29.
“The combined punishment for all charges is 222… years in prison,” a spokesperson for the Southern District of New York Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
After less than three days of deliberations, the jury convicted Menendez of charges including conspiracy to commit bribery, acting as a foreign agent while a public official, and obstruction of justice.
Menendez, who said in June that he would run as an independent candidate in the November election, is a career politician and led the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee until the charges were filed. He is still a sitting senator.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, urged Menendez to step down.
Senator ‘for sale’
“In the wake of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do the right thing for his voters, the Senate, and our country and resign,” Schumer said.
Menendez shook his head from side to side when the verdict was announced, CNN reported.
Prosecutors have alleged that Menendez put his power as a top US senator “up for sale.”
During a raid on his New Jersey home, FBI agents are said to have found about $500,000 in cash hidden in the house, as well as gold bricks worth about $150,000 and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible car.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, whom defense attorneys are seeking to shift the blame, has also been charged but will be tried separately because she is receiving treatment for breast cancer.
He was convicted alongside two businessmen he allegedly helped — Egyptian-American Wael Hana and real estate developer Fred Debs.
A third businessman, insurance broker Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March and assisted investigators.
Menendez is said to have intervened in the nomination of the New Jersey prosecutor, in order to ensure that proceedings against DeBiase and Uribe were dropped.
He is also accused of using his power and influence to enrich his co-conspirators and to accept bribes to benefit the Egyptian government, including by helping Hanna maintain its monopoly on U.S. exports of halal food products to the country.
Prosecutors said Hanna and DeBiase would face 85 years and 100 years in prison, respectively.
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