Former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has nearly run out of cash from his campaign donors to pay his legal fees.
For the last year, the money in Menendez’s campaign fundraising account has steadily dwindled as he’s tried – unsuccessfully so far – to fight off the federal corruption charges that have been levied against him. Now, after another quarter of heavy legal spending, Menendez is down to his last $1.5 million.
Menendez reported spending nearly $1.8 million during the 3rd quarter of 2024, most of which went towards a bevy of lawyers defending him from the charges of which he was convicted in July. He raised exactly $0 during the same time period; even the small number of recurring donations that had previously still been flowing into his coffers ceased. (The account did accrue around $21,000 in interest during the 3rd quarter.)
A separate legal defense fund Menendez established to help pay his legal fees has largely dried up, too. The fund reported raising no money during the 3rd quarter and spending around $66,000, which represents most of what the fund had on-hand to begin with.
Given that Menendez plans to appeal his conviction, and that his sentencing isn’t until January, that means the financial situation is beginning to get dicey for the senator. Until and unless big donors decide to start flooding the legal defense fund with cash again, Menendez can only afford to pay for a few more months’ worth of legal representation on campaign cash alone.
The story of Menendez’s fundraising account is in some ways the story of the former senator’s political fall in miniature.
Thirteen months ago, Menendez was forging ahead with a campaign for re-election, and he had a whopping $8.5 million in his warchest to scare off anyone who might even consider taking him on. But on September 22, 2023, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unveiled a bombshell indictment against the senator accusing him of peddling influence in Washington in exchange for gifts and gold bars – and the New Jersey political world was upended.
From that day on, Menendez has ceased virtually all fundraising, and outside of those who unwittingly kept their recurring donations active, almost no donors wanted to go anywhere near him. His legal fees, meanwhile, have been stratospheric; the high-powered law firms he’s hired to defend himself have billed him nearly $7 million so far.
In August, a month after he was convicted on all 16 charges of which he was accused, Menendez resigned from the Senate, at last doing what most New Jersey Democrats had been calling on him to do since last fall. That ended the political saga of Bob Menendez – but he’s keeping the legal saga going, and he’ll need money to do it.