New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is resisting calls from fellow Democrats to step down after he was indicted by federal prosecutors on Friday in a sweeping bribery scheme.
On Monday, the senator doubled-down and suggested he wouldn’t resign from his Senate seat. “The allegations leveled against me are just that — allegations,” he said during a press conference. “I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I will still be New Jersey’s senior senator.”
His refusal to leave comes as he and his wife, Nadine, face charges accusing them of accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for favors. This includes allegedly sharing sensitive U.S. information and aiding the Egyptian government. (So far, both have denied any wrongdoing.)
In response, House lawmakers, state leaders, and Gov. Phil Murphy have called for Menendez’s resignation, but Senate Democrats have been slow to join in. Sen. Sherrod Brown is now only the second Senate Democrat to call on him to step down, saying he has “broken the public trust.”
But can senators really be forced to step down? Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. Here’s what we know about the allegations against Menendez and whether he will be able to remain in office.
What charges are New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and his wife facing?
Menendez and his wife are facing three charges: conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right.
Prosecutors allege that the senator and his wife accepted cash, gold bars, and a convertible car totaling over $600,000 in return for assisting a group of New Jersey businessmen on behalf of interests in Egypt. According to the indictment, investigators found more than $480,000 in cash “hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe.” (Menendez claims the money came from his personal savings account that he was hoarding for emergencies).
Each charge carries anywhere from five to 20 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice. On top of criminal charges, prosecutors have filed a forfeiture claim seeking to keep the money and other gifts allegedly paid to the senator as a bribe.
Despite the damning indictment, Menendez remains defiant in response to calls for his resignation and maintains that he’s a victim of an improper smear campaign. But while he claims it has to do with his Cuban background, other senators who have called on him to resign — including Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent — have pushed back this allegation.
“As a Latina, there are absolutely ways in which there is systemic bias, but I think what is here in this indictment is quite clear,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CBS over the weekend in response to the news.
Could New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez be removed from office?
Senators can’t be impeached following a ruling by the upper chamber in 1798, but they can be expelled by a supermajority vote.
While the U.S. Constitution doesn’t outline specific grounds to officially remove a member of Congress, it says, “each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.”
That said, expulsion has been pretty uncommon. Since 1789, only 15 senators have been removed from office and most of these happened during the Civil War. (All but one was ousted for supporting the Confederacy.)
Since then, the Senate has also considered expelling more than a dozen other senators but it either dropped those proceedings or failed to act before the member left office. In those cases, corruption was the primary cause of complaint. For instance, former New Jersey Senator Harrison Williams, who was convicted of conspiracy and bribery, was recommended for expulsion in 1982 but he resigned before the Senate vote.
Can voters remove Menendez?
Voters don’t have a direct say in removing a senator from office — in fact, any attempt by a state to recall a member of Congress is prohibited by the federal Constitution.
Still, public pressure is an effective impetus for embattled senators. “They lose sway within their political support back at home, they lose the support of the party, any sort of mechanisms or power that would give them the ability to get reelected sort of pushes them out,” Georgetown University professor Joshua Huder told North New Jersey.com.
Of course, that isn’t always the case. Republican Rep. George Santos has continued to stay in office even after calls to resign over a 13-count federal indictment related to wire fraud, money laundering, and other charges. And now, Menendez could follow suit — after all, this isn’t the first time he’s faced legal problems while in office. In 2017, Menendez dodged a federal indictment after a jury deadlocked on corruption and bribery charges, which ultimately resulted in a mistrial.
