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Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., took one other dig on the embattled New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, calling him a “sleazeball” for being current at Secretary Antony Blinken’s labeled briefing to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday regardless of his alleged corruption.
Menendez stepped down as committee chairman final yr following his federal bribery indictment.
“I don’t know why anybody would take a meeting with that sleazeball,” Fetterman mentioned to reporters. “And he needs to go. I’ve been very clear about that. And that’s why they are choosing to endorse, Andy Kim, and it’s astonishing.”
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., is working in opposition to Menendez for his Senate seat within the 2024 election. Kim is a part of a chorale of Democrats calling for the New Jersey senator to resign.
Fetterman, who has repeatedly known as for Menendez to be expelled, mentioned, “We should have chucked him.”
“I don’t know why we haven’t chucked him, and I sure hope eventually we do chuck him,” he mentioned.
DEMOCRAT LAWMAKER RENEWS CALL TO EXPEL MENENDEZ AFTER LATEST BRIBERY CHARGES
Sen. John Fetterman is one in all a number of Democratic Party lawmakers who’ve known as on Sen. Bob Menendez to resign from the U.S. Senate. (Bill Clark/Getty Images and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Prosecutors accused Menendez in a second superseding indictment unsealed this month of accepting bribes and items in change for serving to to profit Qatar as a part of a years-long corruption scheme from 2021 via 2023, one yr longer than initially thought, the Justice Department mentioned.
His lawyer, Adam Fee, mentioned the brand new allegations “stink of desperation.”
Menendez and his spouse, Nadine, requested separate trials, based on paperwork that every of their attorneys filed late Monday. Their trial is about to start in May in Manhattan.
In a request to District Court Judge Sidney H. Stein, Nadine’s attorneys declare she seeks to guard confidential marital communications with Menendez, anticipating her husband’s potential testimony of their trial.
Menendez is dealing with federal costs for allegedly performing as a overseas agent and accepting a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} of bribes to profit the Egyptian authorities via his energy and affect as a senator. His attorneys filed a movement to dismiss the extra costs earlier this month.
DEMOCRAT SEN. BOB MENENDEZ SETS UP DEFENSE FUND AMID CRIMINAL PROBE INTO GIFTS TO HIS WIFE: REPORT
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his spouse Nadine Menendez arrive on the federal courthouse in New York, Sept. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon)
Menendez, alongside with his spouse Nadine and three New Jersey businessmen – Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes – have been first charged within the federal bribery scheme on Sept. 23. All have pleaded not responsible.
Among the brand new allegations is that Menendez and hs spouse enriched themselves with money, gold bars and a luxurious automotive. The couple allegedly obtained the items in change for Menendez utilizing his affect to induce the Qatari Investment Co. to take a position with Daibes.
“”Sensationalized allegations at the moment are making a rising name for my resignation, regardless of my innocence and earlier than a single piece of proof has even been launched in a courtroom of regulation,” Menendez said on the Senate floor this month.
Menendez repeatedly asserted his innocence and claimed “there isn’t any proof” of the gifts and payments he allegedly received as a suspected foreign agent.
“In truth, there will likely be at trial a full clarification of what’s the reality about these points, a reality that proves I’m fully harmless of the costs,” he mentioned.
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