NEW JERSEY – New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez He is expected to retire this Tuesday, about a month after the jury found guilty of federal corruption charges.
Menendez he announced his resignation last month In a letter to Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, who announced on Friday that a his former chief of staff would hold that seat in the US Senate.
George Helmy will succeed Menendez until the results of the November elections for the Senate seat are determined at the end of the month, the governor said. At that time, Murphy said Helmy will step down and announce the winner of the election for the seat.
The stakes are high in the Senate elections, as Democrats hold a slim majority. A Republican has not won a Senate election in New Jersey, a Democratic-leaning state, in more than five decades.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim and Republican hotel developer Curtis Bashaw face off in the general election.
Helmy, 44, served as Murphy’s chief of staff from 2019 to 2023 and is currently an executive at one of the state’s largest health care providers, RWJ Barnabas Health. He was previously the state leader of Sen. Cory Booker in the Senate.
Menendez, 70, was convicted on charges that he used influence to interfere in three separate state and federal criminal investigations to protect businessmen. Prosecutors said he helped one friend who paid bribes secure a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another to secure a contract to provide a religious certificate for meat destined for Egypt.
He was also convicted of acts that benefited the Egyptian Government in exchange for bribes, including providing details of US Embassy staff in Cairo and writing an anonymous letter to fellow senators about lifting the aid embargo to Egypt. FBI agents also said they found stacks of gold bars and $480,000 hidden in Menendez’s home.
Menendez denied all charges and, in a letter to Murphy last month, said he plans to appeal the conviction.
The profession it seems to mark the end of an almost lifelong political career for Menéndezwho was first elected to the local school board just a couple of years after graduating high school. He was also elected to the state Legislature and Congress before going to the Senate.
Menendez is the only US senator to be impeached twice.
In 2015, he was accused of allowing a wealthy Florida eye doctor to buy his influence through luxury vacations and campaign donations. After a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in 2017, federal prosecutors in New Jersey dropped the case rather than retry it.
He was a Democrat in Congress but decided not to run in the primary this year while his lawsuit unfolded. He filed to run as an independent in the fall, though he withdrew his name from the ballot Friday, according to a letter he sent to state election officials.
2024-08-20 16:42:25
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