New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and a growing number of Democrats are calling on Senator Bob Menendez to resign after he and his wife were indicted Friday on bribery charges. Congressmember Andy Kim announced Saturday he will run for Menendez’s Senate seat. Federal prosecutors accuse Menendez of accepting bribes in exchange for using his position to increase U.S. assistance to Egypt and to do favors for New Jersey businessmen.
Damian Williams: “Senator Menendez allegedly provided sensitive, nonpublic U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and otherwise took steps to secretly aid the government of Egypt. We also allege that Senator Menendez improperly pressured a senior official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect a lucrative monopoly that the government of Egypt had awarded to Hana, a lucrative monopoly that Hana then used to fund certain bribe payments.”
Bribes included a Mercedes-Benz, mortgage payments, gold bars and over $500,000 in cash. It’s the second time Menendez has been charged with corruption. Menendez stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he’s holding a press conference today. We’ll have more on this story later in the show.