Despite being accused of federal corruption, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey said he will not step down from the Senate on Monday and predicted he will be found not guilty.
“I firmly believe that after all the evidence is presented, I will not only be cleared but also retain my position as New Jersey’s senior senator,” Menendez informed journalists at a press conference in Union City, New Jersey, where he had held the office of mayor. He made them for the first time since the charges against him were made public on Friday.
In addition, Menendez provided an explanation for the $480,000 in cash that prosecutors claimed was discovered in his New Jersey home, “much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe.”
He claimed that for the past 30 years, he has taken cash withdrawals of thousands of dollars from his personal savings account, which he has stored for emergencies and because his family has a history of being targeted for confiscation in Cuba. These funds were taken from my personal savings account in accordance with the income I had legitimately earned over the past 30 years.
Some of the packets “contained the fingerprints and/or DNA” of one of the individuals accused of bribing Menendez or that individual’s driver, according to the indictment. Menendez stated that the presumption of innocence should apply to him but did not address that assertion in his remarks or respond to inquiries from reporters.
He declared that the accusations leveled against him were merely that—accusations.
He pleaded with his legislative counterparts “to pause & allow for all the facts to be presented.”
“The court of public opinion cannot replace our cherished legal system. When the harm is irreparable, we cannot disregard the presumption of innocence for political reasons, Menendez added.
“Sometimes prosecutors get it wrong,” he said.
It’s unclear to whom Menendez was talking when he made the remarks regarding the money or whether their possessions had been seized. Menendez’s parents immigrated to the US years prior, and he was born in the country in 1954, despite the fact that the Cuban government started taking some property in 1959 after the revolution.
An inquiry for more information regarding his comments was not immediately answered by his office.
Democrats in the House and Democratic leaders in New Jersey, including Governor Phil Murphy, have repeatedly demanded that Menendez step down. Only Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman has asked for him to resign from the Senate, while others have termed the claims against him “devastating.”
We have an extra flashlight for our home emergencies, Fetterman wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, in response to Menendez’s “emergencies” excuse for the high amount of cash at his home.
Additionally, the Fetterman campaign acknowledged that $5,000 in contributions made by Menendez to his 2022 campaign will be returned, as was reported in The Messenger. We are currently repaying the funds in envelopes “stuffed with $100 bills,” Fetterman spokesperson Joe Calvello told NBC News.
Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, declared on Saturday that he would run against Menendez. Not what I had planned to do, but NJ merits better, Kim wrote on X.
The charges against Menendez and his wife include conspiracy to extort money, commit honest services fraud, and commit bribery. They were indicted on Friday. They allegedly accepted bribes in the form of “gold bars, cash, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other items of value,” according to the indictment.
A Mercedes-Benz, exercise equipment, home furnishings, and “over $100,000 worth of gold bars,” according to the indictment, were among the items discovered by federal investigators who carried out a search warrant at their home and discovered the more than $480,000 in cash along with other allegedly illegally obtained gains that they claim were used to bribe Menendez.
Other than the senior leaders, senators earn $174,000 each year.
Menendez has claimed that he is being singled against because of his ethnicity, but he has denied any wrongdoing.
“I am well aware of how some people hurry to judge a Latino and eject him from his seat. I’m not leaving, he declared.