Ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., arrives for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, June 20, 2019.
Bill Clark | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called on U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez to resign because of his indictment on federal bribery charges.
“The allegations in the indictment against Senator Menendez and four other defendants are deeply disturbing,” Murphy said Friday about his fellow Democrat Menendez, who is New Jersey’s senior senator.
“These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system,” said Murphy. “The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”
The senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted Friday morning on three criminal counts, along with three co-defendants who were indicted on only two of the counts.
The Menendez’s are accused of having taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes over at least four years, while the senator performed, in return, political favors for three New Jersey businessmen. Prosecutors allege the favors included providing sensitive national security information to Egyptian officials.
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