Senator Menendez Convicted of Corruption in Broad International Conspiracy

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a powerful Democrat who once led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was convicted on Tuesday of participating in a vast international bribery scheme, in which prosecutors said he had accepted gold, cash and other payoffs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for political favors abroad and at home.

A Manhattan jury returned the verdict after deliberating for less than three days in Federal District Court. Mr. Menendez was found guilty on all 16 counts he faced, including bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, acting as an agent for Egypt and conspiracy.

The verdict made Mr. Menendez the first United States senator to be found guilty of acting as an agent of a foreign power and the seventh to be convicted of a federal crime while in office.

Mr. Menendez, 70, now faces the possibility of many years in prison when he is sentenced by the judge, Sidney H. Stein. Eight of the counts on which he was convicted carry potential 20-year sentences. Sentencing is set to take place on Oct. 29.

The conviction will almost certainly deliver a final blow to Mr. Menendez’s storied four-decade political career and create intense pressure for him to resign his office before his term expires at year’s end. He had resisted calls to do so before his trial but could now face a rare expulsion vote by his Senate colleagues if he does not leave voluntarily.

The verdict comes seven years after Mr. Menendez was tried in an unrelated federal bribery case, held in New Jersey, in which a jury said it could not reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared. When Mr. Menendez was indicted in Manhattan last September, he became the first U.S. senator ever to face federal bribery charges twice.