Sen. Bob Menendez (D-J.) plans to resign from the Senate under intense pressure from Democrats after being convicted in a federal corruption case.
The senators’ resignations were entered into the Congressional Record on Tuesday by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont), who served as Senate President.
In a document obtained by Fox News, Menendez told Governor Phil Murphy (DN.J) that he intends to step down after Aug. 20.
“While I intend to appeal the jury’s verdict all the way to the Supreme Court, I do not want to embroil the Senate in a lengthy process that distracts from its important work,” he wrote, likely referring to the recently opened ethics committee investigation and possible efforts to expel him.
The New Jersey Democrat was found guilty last week of 16 charges, including racketeering, bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, wire fraud and acting as a foreign agent. The trial lasted nine weeks, with the jury deliberating for three days before reaching a verdict.
Menendez was convicted by a New York jury. (Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, initially refrained from resigning after the charges were announced but immediately called for Menendez’s resignation.
“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must do the right thing for his constituents, the Senate and our country and resign,” he said in a statement.
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Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) echoed Schumer’s call in his own statement, as did nearly every other Senate Democrat.
Menendez was accused of similar conduct in 2015. (AP Photo/Gina Moon, File)
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Senator Menendez of New Jersey has served in the House of Representatives since 2006 and has been re-elected twice. Prior to joining the Senate, Menendez served several terms in the House of Representatives.
“I am proud of the many accomplishments I have achieved on behalf of New Jersey, including leading the federal effort to recover from Superstorm Sandy, preserving and funding the Gateway, and leading the federal effort to provide relief to New Jersey’s hospitals, state and local governments, and families from the once-in-a-century COVID pandemic,” he said in Tuesday’s letter. “These successes have led the Governor to call me an ‘indispensable Senator.'”
In 2015, Menendez was indicted on charges of conspiracy, bribery and honest services fraud in connection with gifts that the government said were political favors from a wealthy eye doctor, but a mistrial was entered in 2017 after jurors could not agree on a verdict. By 2018, prosecutors announced they would not seek a retrial for the senator.
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Photo evidence shows gold bars given by Fred Daves and found in the home of New Jersey Democratic Sens. Robert and Nadine Menendez. (United States District Court)
Some have threatened to also consider expelling Menendez from the Senate if he doesn’t follow recent advice from Democrats to step down after the verdict, but that would require a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, which could be difficult to achieve among lawmakers.
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United States Capitol (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Expulsion is also a rarely used tool; no member has been removed from Congress since the 1800s. In 1995, there was an effort to expel former Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), but he ultimately resigned to avoid that fate.
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Only 15 senators have ever been expelled, 14 of them for supporting the Confederacy during the Civil War.
In other cases, efforts to expel senators (often for corruption reasons) ended when the senators left office, and in some cases the expulsion proceedings were dropped.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
