New Jersey senator Bob Menendez (D) is in the eye of the storm. As calls from fellow senators intensify, the first-term lawmaker faces expulsion from his seat. Notable among them is Pennsylvania’s Senator, John Fetterman.
Menendez stirred up a hornet’s nest by several actions he has been accused of, including bribery and conspiring to act as a foreign agent. The public got wind of the allegations against the Senator when charges surfaced in September 2024.
Menendez was indicted for using his position between 2018 and 2023 to help the government of Egypt. The Senator also faces charges of securing privileges for Egyptian businessmen during the same period. He didn’t come out of it empty-handed.
Prosecutors say Menendez and his wife, Nadine, got cash bribes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible, and other items. He also received home mortgage payments and a massive dent to his reputation, which will be almost irreparable if convicted.
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In October of the same year, Menendez faced additional charges of acting as an agent of the Egyptian government while he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But things were yet to get worse for the Senator.
On Tuesday, January 2, 2023, fresh allegations emerged. This time, another oil-rich nation, Qatar, was mentioned.
The new charges say Menendez received payments from Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer. In exchange, Menendez used his influence to fetch millions of dollars from a Qatari-linked investment fund. Prosecutors say Menendez helped Qatar in the process.
While Menendez has denied any wrongdoing, many of his colleagues at the Capitol do not buy his claims of innocence. Some have already called for disciplinary action against him. Surprisingly, Sen. John Fetterman, a fellow Democrat, is leading the campaign.
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Fetterman has repeatedly called for Menendez’s expulsion from his senate seat. Not long after the latest indictments, Fetterman came out guns blazing on his X account. “Now, accused of selling his honor and our nation for a $24,000 watch. Accused as a foreign agent for *two* nations. How much more before we finally expel @SenatorMenendez?” he asked.
Speaking on ABC’s The View, Fetterman compared Menendez’s situation to another lawmaker George Santos’. The House of Representatives, in 2023, expelled the Republican Congressman from New York for misusing campaign funds. Referring to Menendez, Fetterman said in the program that “the more important picture is that we have a colleague in the Senate that actually did much more sinister kinds of things.”
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Fetterman called Menendez a “Senator for Egypt, not New Jersey.” He also argued that there was no basis for keeping Menendez in his seat if Santos didn’t enjoy such benevolence.
Menendez’s attorney, Adam Fee, has called the allegations “baseless” and “bizarre.” Meanwhile, Menendez has expressed disgust over Fetterman’s actions.
In a statement to the press, the Senator criticized Fetterman for acting like “he’s judge, jury, and executioner.” He also accused Fetterman of playing to the gallery and being “more interested in clickbait than justice.”
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