Senator Cory Booker known as on Senator Robert Menendez, his fellow New Jersey Democrat, to resign Tuesday morning, ending days of silence after Mr. Menendez was indicted on bribery prices.
As New Jersey’s junior senator, Mr. Booker usually has described Mr. Menendez, the senior senator, as a good friend, ally and mentor. His resolution to sentence Mr. Menendez, and to hitch the rising refrain of state and federal officers calling on him to step down, demonstrates the deepening disaster dealing with a senator who till final week had occupied one of the vital highly effective and safe positions in American politics.
“The small print of the allegations towards Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the religion and belief of New Jerseyans in addition to these he should work with so as to be efficient have been shaken to the core,” Mr. Booker mentioned, including: “I consider stepping down is finest for these Senator Menendez has spent his life serving.”
Mr. Menendez was charged on Friday with utilizing his energy as chairman of the Overseas Relations Committee to help the federal government of Egypt and businessmen in New Jersey in change for bribes that included bars of gold bullion, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, train machines and greater than $500,000 in money.
Mr. Menendez has been defiant within the face of the fees, saying in a information convention on Monday that prosecutors had framed the allegations towards him to be “as salacious as doable” and predicting that he can be exonerated.
Mr. Booker’s assertion got here as a flood of Democrats, significantly these dealing with re-election subsequent yr in politically aggressive states, issued statements calling on Mr. Menendez to step apart. Many prime Democrats in New Jersey, together with Gov. Philip D. Murphy, have additionally mentioned Mr. Menendez ought to resign.
The bond between Mr. Booker and Mr. Menendez has been sturdy since Mr. Booker’s first months within the Senate, in 2013, when he was one of many first members to co-sponsor a invoice by Mr. Menendez to punish Iran for its nuclear weapons program by imposing harder financial sanctions.
Within the decade since, the 2 senators have joined one another for a whole lot of stories conferences and different public occasions, every praising the opposite as a good friend and a defender of New Jersey voters.
The friendship survived an earlier set of corruption allegations towards Mr. Menendez, in 2015, when the senator was charged with utilizing his energy to assist a watch surgeon in New Jersey who later was sentenced to jail for Medicare fraud.
That corruption trial led to a mistrial in November 2017. The decide later acquitted Mr. Menendez of a number of prices and the Justice Division dismissed the others.
“Bob is my good friend. There’s no senator I’ve labored extra carefully with. He’s a rare senator. I’ve seen him in essentially the most intimate moments and didn’t see a touch of corruption,” Mr. Booker said in an interview with HuffPost in 2019. “I’ll stand by Bob Menendez.”
The bond between the 2 senators was displayed on a nationwide stage this January, after they joined President Biden for an occasion in Manhattan celebrating new federal funding for a long-delayed challenge to rebuild a practice tunnel connecting New York Metropolis to New Jersey.
At the same time as he known as on Mr. Menendez to resign, Mr. Booker praised his colleague for his “boundless work ethic,” and sought in his assertion to spotlight “a friendship that I worth.” He additionally mentioned he supported Mr. Menendez’s efforts “to mount a vigorous protection.”
However in different methods, Mr. Booker underscored the intense, often tawdry nature of the allegations, describing the federal indictment as containing “stunning allegations of corruption and particular, disturbing particulars of wrongdoing.”
This can be a growing story and will likely be up to date.
Tracey Tully contributed reporting.
