Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has hired the same lawyer as Hunter Biden to defend him against federal bribery charges.
Menendez enlisted attorney Abbe Lowell on Friday as news of his legal jeopardy captivated Washington, a spokesman for prosecutors told CNBC. Lowell is also representing Biden in his defense against federal gun charges. The longtime senator is now facing calls to resign from prominent fellow Democrats.
Menendez is scheduled to hold a press conference regarding his charges Monday morning. It is unclear whether Lowell will attend the conference with him.
Mendez had previously hired Lowell to represent him in a 2015 case where he was accused of accepting illegal gifts.
Menendez has already stepped down “temporarily” from his position as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He faces federal bribery charges alleging that he and his wife, from at least 2018 through 2022, “engaged in a corrupt relationship” with three New Jersey businessmen.
DEMOCRATIC SEN. BOB MENENDEZ FACING INDICTMENT ON BRIBERY CHARGES
Menendez’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
“Today, I’m announcing that my office has obtained a three-count indictment charging Sen. Robert Menendez, his wife, Nadine Menendez, and three New Jersey businessmen, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, for bribery offenses,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a press conference on Friday morning.
According to the indictment, the couple accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using Menendez’s power and influence as a senator to seek to protect and enrich Hana, Uribe and Daibes and to benefit the Arab Republic of Egypt.”
Prominent Democrats, including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have called on Menendez to resign.
“The situation is quite unfortunate, but I do believe that it is in the best interest for Sen. Menendez to resign in this moment. As you mentioned, consistency matters. It shouldn’t matter whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat,” Ocasio-Cortez told CBS on Sunday.
Ocasio-Cortez went on to argue that the charges have nothing to do with Menendez’s race, an argument the senator has already attempted to make.
“As a Latina, there are absolutely ways in which there is systemic bias. But I think what is here in this indictment is quite clear. And I believe [resignation] is in the best interest to maintain the integrity of the seat,” Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday.