Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who’s on trial on 16 federal corruption counts, filed Monday to run for reelection as an independent, threatening to become a spoiler in a race that Democrats would not normally fret about, Politico reports. Menendez, 70, filed with 2,465 petition signatures. He needed 800. The senator had said he was ”hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election.” Menendez’s trial is nowhere near finished and will not wrap up until well after Tuesday’s filing deadline. Menendez said Monday that he looked forward to proving his innocence and campaigning on his 18-year record in the Senate. He cited his work getting aid for New Jersey’s recovery after Hurricane Sandy and helping hospitals stay on their feet during the pandemic.
Menendez entered the Senate in 2006 and rose to chair the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He was dogged by corruption accusations and investigations throughout his tenure, including charges that he beat in 2017 thanks to a hung jury. Shortly after Menendez’s previous corruption trial ended, he struck up a relationship with his now-wife and co-defendant Nadine Menendez. The Menendezes are accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for doing favors for several businesspeople and the Egyptian and Qatari governments. Menendez faces charges that include bribery, obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The current case against Menendez appears much stronger than the previous one, when the Democratic Party remained supportive after the mistrial and helped him win reelection in 2018 by 11 points. A series of federal court decisions have made it more difficult to convict public officials of corruption, and the judge overseeing the trial has ruled some critical evidence against the senator inadmissible because of the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. While Menendez plans to run if exonerated, it’s not clear if he’ll drop out if convicted.