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Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith withhold calls for Sen. Robert Menendez resignation [1]
['Nafi Soumare', 'More From Author', '- September']
Date: 2023-09-25
Neither of Minnesota’s U.S. Senators are calling on their colleague U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez to resign after his bribery-related indictment last week that could mean 20 years in prison if convicted.
“These are serious charges, but as I have always said, everyone is entitled to due process,” U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in a statement to the Reformer.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whose office didn’t immediately respond to questions about Menendez resigning, said in a statement to the Star Tribune that the “very serious charges” warrant investigation by the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee, but makes no mention of resignation.
Smith and Klobuchar join most of their Senate Democratic colleagues in declining to call for Menendez’s resignation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Menendez a “dedicated public servant” who has a “right to due process and a fair trial.”
The response is in marked contrast to the swift deposing of Klobuchar’s former colleague, Sen. Al Franken, who in 2017 was accused by several women of inappropriate touching but never charged with a crime. At the time, Democrats were hoping to pick up a Senate seat in an Alabama special election, where Republican Roy Moore was accused of sexually assaulting underage women.
Smith replaced Franken in the Senate when she was appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton.
The Senate is known as “the world’s most exclusive club,” and senators are often wary of criticizing colleagues, Franken notwithstanding. Thus far, only U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Sherrod Brown have called for Menendez’s resignation.
A failure to force Menendez out threatens Democrats’ ability to run against corruption next year, when the likely GOP standard bearer will be former President Donald Trump, who is facing 91 state and federal charges in four separate investigations.
Federal prosecutors say Menendez accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes from Wael Hana, a long-time friend with ties to Egyptian officials, as well as New Jersey businessmen Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, long-time donors to Menendez. Menendez was previously indicted on charges of bribery in 2015 for accepting approximately $1 million dollars in gifts and campaign contributions, but the trial ended in a hung jury.
The FBI executed a search warrant on Menendez’s home property June 2022, discovering over $480,000 in cash stuffed into envelopes and stashed in clothing items. Another $70,000 in cash was found in the safety deposit box of his wife, Nadine Menendez.
Gold bars and hidden envelopes of cash were among what Menendez said Monday were part of savings he accrued over his 30-year career in politics. Some of the envelopes contained DNA fingerprints of Fred Daibes, tying him to the cash.
Menendez claimed in an interview that the cash was for emergencies, to which Fetterman replied, “We have an extra flashlight for our home emergencies.”
Klobuchar made headlines in 2015 for returning Menendez’s campaign donations after his first indictment.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/09/25/sens-amy-klobuchar-and-tina-smith-withhold-calls-for-sen-robert-menendez-resignation/
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