Despite a federal jury convicting him on bribery charges, New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez has shown no indication that he plans to voluntarily resign, prompting some Senate Democrats to consider expelling him from office.
A Manhattan federal jury on July 16 convicted the 70-year-old Democrat on 16 counts, including accepting bribes in cash and gold bars from three New Jersey businessmen and illegally acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt.
Democrats have been clear that they do not want Menendez, whose current term expires in January, to remain in office now that he has been found guilty of the charges.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for Menendez to step down within minutes of the verdict.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy urged the Senate to expel Menendez if he refused to resign.
Expulsion would require a two-thirds majority vote and is exceedingly rare. The last time the Senate considered expulsion was nearly 30 years ago. In total, only 15 senators have ever been expelled from the Senate, nearly all of them during the Civil War.
New Jersey’s other senator, Democrat Cory Booker, told MSNBC on July 16 that Menendez must step down. Booker warned that if Menendez refused, he would lead the effort to ensure his Senate colleague was expelled.
When speaking to reporters following his conviction, Menendez refused to comment on his plans for the Senate, saying only that he would appeal the verdict. He insisted that he did not violate his “public oath” and has remained a “patriot” of the country.
After he was indicted last September, Menendez stepped down as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but continued attending classified briefings, a move that angered his Senate colleagues.
More than half of the Senate Democrat caucus called for Menendez to resign following his indictment and now that he has been convicted, the pressure on the New Jersey senator is only mounting.
Following the indictment, the Senate Ethics Committee said it would “promptly” complete the investigation it began after Menendez was indicted and made it clear that a recommendation of expulsion was on the table.
If Menendez leaves office, Governor Murphy will appoint someone to serve out the remainder of his term. Some Democrats in the state have urged the governor to name Democrat Rep. Andy Kim, who won the Democrat nomination to run for Menendez’s seat in November. Kim has said he would accept the appointment if it was offered.
