The decision comes a week after a federal judge acquitted Sen. Bob Menendez. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images Justice Department drops corruption case against Menendez The decision comes a week after a federal judge acquitted Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen on seven of the 18 counts.

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The Justice Department reversed itself and dropped its corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez on Wednesday, removing a huge burden from the senator — and national Democrats — as he prepares for a reelection campaign.

The decision by Judge Jose Linares in Newark to dismiss all the remaining counts comes less than two weeks after the Justice Department announced it would retry Menendez, a Democrat and New Jersey's senior senator, and his co-defendant, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, on corruption charges.


“From the very beginning, I never wavered in my innocence and my belief that justice would prevail,” Menendez said in a statement. “I am grateful that the Department of Justice has taken the time to reevaluate its case and come to the appropriate conclusion. I thank God for hearing my prayers and for giving me strength during this difficult time.

"I have devoted my life to serving the people of New Jersey, and am forever thankful for all who have stood by me," Menendez said. "No matter the challenges ahead, I will never stop fighting for New Jersey and the values we share.”

The decision is a major victory for Menendez and the Democratic Party, which was facing the prospect of having the 12-year incumbent facing a corruption trial while running for what should be one of its safest Senate seats.

It also comes a week after Judge William Walls damaged the prosecution’s case by acquitting Menendez and Melgen on seven of the 18 corruption counts they had faced during a two-and-a-half-month trial last fall. The trial ended in a hung jury, with one juror telling reporters that 10 of the 12 members of the panel favored acquittal on most counts.

“Given the impact of the Court’s Jan. 24 Order on the charges and the evidence admissible in a retrial, the United States has determined that it will not retry the defendants on the remaining charges,” DOJ spokeswoman Nicole Navas said in a statement.

During an unrelated news conference in Atlantic City, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said the outcome showed why any speculation about the case “would have been a waste of time” and went on to praise the senator.

“The notion to have two extraordinary senators in this state, unencumbered, 1,000 percent focused on pushing forth the interest of the 9 million folks who call New Jersey home is a new and great day,” Murphy said.

Menendez was charged in 2015 with doing official favors for Melgen in exchange for private jet flights, lavish vacations — including luxury hotel stays — and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Federal prosecutors also charged Menendez with willfully leaving Melgen’s gifts off his Senate financial disclosure forms.

Walls’ ruling last week — made just before he recused himself from the case — eliminated the counts having to do with the campaign contributions. Those were some of the most dramatic claims against the senator, and also the ones with a clearer link between the alleged bribe and the alleged benefit.

“I think the judge really gutted a big part of the case,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal corruption prosecutor in Washington. “And I agree the evidence of a link in those counts was actually stronger than in the other counts.”

Wednesday's decision by the DOJ to dismiss the charges stands in stark contrast to its posture two weeks ago, in which it sought to bar Menendez and Melgen from “racializing” the case in their retrial by suggesting they were unfairly targeted because of their shared Hispanic heritage.

By dint of New Jersey’s strong Democratic registration advantage and residents’ anti-Trump animus, Menendez is considered a favorite to win reelection. But the trial left him with political problems.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll conducted in November, mostly in the weeks after the mistrial was declared, found about 51 percent of New Jersey voters did not think he deserved to be reelected. Menendez also faces a probe by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics that could keep his troubles in the news.

The senator also saw his support take big hits after initial news reports of his relationship with Melgen in 2013, and after his indictment in 2015. Both times, his poll numbers recovered.

Republican pharmaceutical executive Robert Hugin is widely expected to announce in the coming weeks that he will seek the GOP nomination to run against Menendez. Hugin, who made more than $20 million in 2014, is expected to substantially self-fund his campaign. He is also closely allied to the deeply unpopular former Gov. Chris Christie, and was a backer of President Donald Trump, who, according to most polls, New Jerseyans disapprove of by a 2-1 margin.

Menendez will face at least one primary challenger. Michael Starr Hopkins, a TV pundit and former lawyer for the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama presidential campaigns, has announced he’s running. But the state’s Democratic establishment is firmly behind Menendez.

New Jersey has almost 900,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, and the state hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972.

Josh Gerstein and John Bresnahan contributed to this report.

