Williams was convicted on May 1, 1981, for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation,[1] and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982 before a planned expulsion vote.

He engaged in newspaper work in Washington, D.C., and studied at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University until called to active duty as a seaman in the United States Naval Reserve in 1941.

After being employed in the steel industry for a short time, he graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948, and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New Hampshire.

He returned to Plainfield in 1949 and continued to practice law, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the New Jersey General Assembly in 1951 and for city councilman in 1952.

In 1981, Williams, a resident of Westfield, New Jersey, at the time, was convicted of bribery and conspiracy in the Abscam scandal for taking bribes in a sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).