According to the most recent polls, public opinion has plummeted since Menendez was indicted in a second corruption case in less than 10 years.

A Monmouth University poll in New Jersey found that a clear majority of state residents wanted Menendez to resign now – including nearly all of his party colleagues – a reversal from the last time he was under federal indictment.

Only 16% of the state’s voters approve of Menendez’s job, while three in four (74%) disapprove.

Last time the senator faced federal corruption charges, in May 2015, he got a much better job rating: 42% approved and 38% disagreed, noted the poll analysis released on Thursday by the university.

But those charges were dismissed and Menendez won re-election in 2018.

This week, as if corruption charges that threaten to bury his political career were not enough, the lawmaker, who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged with obstruction of justice.

The senator and his wife Nadine Menendez (who, by the way, at some point asked to be tried separately), were charged with 18 new counts, according to court documents.

The indictment alleges the couple caused attorneys to make false statements to federal prosecutors in New York about a Mercedes-Benz convertible and mortgage payments that would have been the result of bribes from businessmen seeking the senator’s favors.

“Robert Menendez allegedly agreed to use his official position to benefit Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, Fred Daibes, and the Government of Egypt in exchange for hundreds of bribes” to him and his wife, which included “gold bullion, cash, and a luxury convertible,” the indictment then stressed.

Menendez, who pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government, was indicted on new charges by a grand jury in Manhattan, just two months before the trial against him, his wife and two New Jersey businessmen begins on May 6.

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