Bob Menendez to resign from Senate following bribery conviction

New Jersey senator's resignation letter imminent, sources say, and follows expulsion threat from fellow Democrats

Robert Menendez, the Democratic senator for New Jersey, will resign from the US Congress next month following threats from party colleagues to expel him after he was convicted of bribery charges, according to sources on his staff.

The former chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee will step down on 20 August amid an unrelenting campaign to persuade him to quit that intensified after he was convicted last week on 16 counts of corruption, including bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent.