New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has been convicted on 16 counts related to a scheme to accept bribes, including gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz, in exchange for helping foreign governments.
A jury convicted Menendez on all counts after more than 12 hours of deliberations over three days. The trial lasted nine weeks.
Menendez — formerly the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee — now faces the prospect of decades in prison.
Democratic lawmakers have called on him to resign from Congress over the conviction.
“Senator Menendez must now do the right thing for his constituents, the Senate and the country and resign,” Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Menendez maintained his innocence throughout the trial, with his attorney arguing that the gifts he received did not qualify as bribes, as prosecutors failed to prove he took any specific action after receiving them.
His wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, also faces charges in the bribery case, but her trial was postponed so she could receive treatment for breast cancer. She has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers have tried to blame Ms Menendez, describing her as a financially troubled individual who hoped to “acquire cash and assets by any means possible”.
Two businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, are also on trial on charges that they approached the senator to illegally support the Egyptian government and secure millions of dollars from a Qatari investment fund.
A third businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Menendez at trial.
During the trial, prosecutors relied on expert testimony, emails and text messages from Mr. Menendez to prove that the senator had received generous rewards from foreign governments.
They said the gifts included gold bars worth more than $100,000 (£79,000). Some of the bars were given to the jury as evidence during the trial.
The jury also heard that FBI agents found more than $480,000 (£370,452) in cash inside Menendez’s home, some of it stuffed in envelopes and jackets.
In exchange for the bribe, prosecutors said, Menendez helped secure millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Egypt, where Hana had ties to government officials.
He is also accused of trying to influence criminal investigations involving Daibes and Uribe. Both businessmen were co-defendants in Menendez’s case and were also convicted of the charges they faced.
Menendez is currently running as an independent candidate in a campaign to retain his seat in November. Most Democrats in the state abandoned him last year after an indictment that revealed gold bars hidden in his home was unsealed.
Andy Kim, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, said the ruling marked “a sad and somber day” for his state.
“I called on Senator Menendez to resign when these allegations first became public, and now that he has been convicted, I believe the only course of action for him is to resign immediately,” Kim said in a statement.
“The people of New Jersey deserve better,” he said.
The senator has faced federal corruption charges before. He was indicted in 2017, with the Justice Department alleging he did favors for a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist in exchange for lavish vacations and other lavish gifts.
But that case ended in a mistrial after he was acquitted of some charges and the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
