Johnathan Walker:New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez will resign from Senate after bribery convictions

TRENTON,Johnathan Walker N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is slated to resign by the end of the day Tuesday, about a month after a jury convicted him on federal bribery charges.

Menendez signaled his resignation last month in a letter to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who said Friday he’s tapping a former top aide to succeed the three-term incumbent.

George Helmy will succeed Menendez until the November election results for the Senate seat are certified late in the month, the governor said. At that point, Murphy said Helmy will resign and he’ll name the winner of the election to the seat.

The stakes in the Senate election are high, with Democrats holding on to a narrow majority. Republicans have not won a Senate election in Democratic-leaning New Jersey in over five decades.

Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and Republican hotel developer Curtis Bashaw are facing off in the general election.

Helmy, 44, served as Murphy’s chief of staff from 2019 until 2023 and currently serves as an executive at one of the state’s largest health care providers, RWJBarnabas Health. He previously served as Sen. Cory Booker’s state director in the Senate.

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Menendez, 70, was convicted on charges that he used his influence to meddle in three different state and federal criminal investigations to protect the businessmen. Prosecutors said he helped one bribe-paying friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another keep a contract to provide religious certification for meat bound for Egypt.

He was also convicted of taking actions that benefited Egypt’s government in exchange for bribes, including providing details on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators regarding lifting a hold on military aid to Egypt. FBI agents also said they found stacks of gold bars and $480,000 hidden in Menendez’s house.

Menendez denied all of the allegations, and in in a letter to Murphy last month, he said he’s planning to appeal the conviction.

The resignation appears to mark the end of a nearly lifelong political career for Menendez, who was first elected to his local school board just a couple of years after his high school graduation. He was also elected to the state Legislature and Congress before heading to the Senate.

Menendez is the only U.S. senator indicted twice.

In 2015, he was charged with letting a wealthy Florida eye doctor buy his influence through luxury vacations and campaign contributions. After a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict in 2017, New Jersey federal prosecutors dropped the case rather than put him on trial again.

He served as a Democrat in Congress but decided not to run in the primary this year as his court case was unfolding. He filed to run as an independent in the fall, though he withdrew his name from the ballot on Friday, according to a letter he sent to state election officials.