After 50 years in Senate, New Jersey's Bob Menendez exits in wake of bribery conviction

Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The resignation of New Jersey's embattled Sen. Bob Menendez on Tuesday is scheduled to go into effect after the Democrat ended a failed Independent bid to keep his coveted Senate seat after a guilty verdict last month on federal bribery charges.

His resignation took effect at 5 p.m. EDT that day, bringing to an end a political career spanning 50 years the made Menendez become New Jersey's fourth longest-serving senator in state history.

New Jersey's Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy has reportedly named George Helmy, the governor's chief of staff, as the senate-designate to fill the vacant seat in a term to expire Jan. 3, 2025, beginning when senator's return next month in September to the nation's capital.

The Democratic senate nominee, Rep. Andy Kim , will face Republican candidate Curtis Bashaw in November's election for a full six-year term to officially serve after Menendez in the senate.

Menendez, 70, was found guilty last month of all 16 counts related to charges of bribery and corruption in July after a Manhattan jury determined that Menendez was guilty of accepting payments in the form of gold bars and cash, and had allegedly acted as a foreign agent for the governments of Qatar and Egypt in the Middle East region.

He has a scheduled October 29 date to face sentencing. But has signaled his intent to appeal the decision by the jury of six men and six women in New York's Southern District court in Manhattan after it rendered a guilty verdict after two days of deliberations.

In a 30-page court document filed on Monday the day prior, Menendez lawyers ask a New York judge to toss out the guilty verdict, arguing in the motion how the prosecution of Menendez was "nothing if not unprecedented and high profile," it read, stating their opinion that all 16 convictions "must be reversed."

"If sustained on such a surprisingly thin reed of evidence, these convictions will make terrible, dangerous law," it reads.

Menendez revealed in late July his intent to resign from the coveted Senate seat on Aug. 20 in a resignation letter to Murphy after his July conviction of corruption-related federal charges.

On Friday, Menendez ended his independent bid for re-election after a hard-fought Democratic primary featuring Rep. Andy Kim and the state's first lady, Tammy Murphy, in a race in which Menendez was largely ignored by voters and party leaders. The race ultimately was won by Kim after Murphy dropped out from the race.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez, who later rose to prominence as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was a House member from 1993-2006 before his appointment in 2006 to the Senate by then-Gov. Jon Corzine to fill his seat in Washington after Corzine's 2005 election to the governor's office.