A defiant New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez declared that he's "not going anywhere" after he was charged with accepting nearly $1 million in gifts and campaign contributions from a longtime friend in exchange for a stream of political favors.

The Democratic Cuban-American politician was due to appear in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday, in response to charges that he used the power of his Senate seat to benefit Dr Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida eye doctor who prosecutors say provided Menendez with luxury vacations, airline travel, golf trips and tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to a legal-defense fund.

Menendez stayed at Melgen's Spanish-style villa at the luxury Casa de Campo resort, in La Romana province, on the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, with or without the eye doctor, "on numerous occasions" from August 2006 to January 2013, according to the 14-count indictment.