By Nicholas Fandos
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey barreled toward a confrontation with his own party on Wednesday, as fellow senators demanded he resign from office after his conviction in a sweeping bribery scheme, or face the possibility of a rare expulsion vote.
Menendez, a Democrat, gave no indication that he was prepared to step down voluntarily. He vowed to appeal Tuesday’s guilty verdict and ignored questions about whether he would continue to serve as he faces many years in prison.
“I have never been anything but a patriot,” he told reporters in New York, warning that the ruling was so wrong it would put “at risk every member of the United States Senate.”
But even before he left the Manhattan courthouse, his path forward appeared to be rapidly crumbling. Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, who would appoint any replacement, reiterated a call for Menendez to step aside, and longtime friends in the Senate said they had given him more than a fair chance to clear his name.
“In light of this guilty verdict, Sen. Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader.
Though Schumer did not explicitly raise the prospect of expulsion, the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee appeared to be moving quickly to lay the groundwork for that possibility. In a statement, its leaders said they would complete an investigation into Menendez “promptly” and would “consider the full range of disciplinary actions.”
Expulsion is the Senate’s gravest form of punishment. It has been used only 15 times in the chamber’s 235-year history, in all but one case to remove members who supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. It requires a two-thirds vote to succeed, though in the past even the specter of such a vote has sometimes been enough to persuade lawmakers to resign.
A growing number of Democratic senators said they believed it would be an appropriate remedy if Menendez did not remove himself. They included those fighting for reelection in swing states, like Jon Tester of Montana and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and politically secure liberals like Peter Welch of Vermont; and Menendez’s longtime friend, Cory Booker of New Jersey, who said he would lead the expulsion effort.
“I think that the majority is moving in that direction,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in an interview. “We’re not talking here about a traffic infraction. These are profoundly serious charges that go to the core of legislative integrity with proof that is fairly dramatic.”
Indeed, Tuesday’s verdict was among the most damning ever returned against a sitting senator, convicting him of 16 counts related to selling out his office and his oath to aid Egypt, Qatar and New Jersey businesspeople in exchange for piles of cash, bars of gold and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
The showdown is likely to come to a head next week, when senators return to Washington after a recess for the Republican National Convention.
In the meantime, both Menendez and Senate leaders were already grappling with a range of other complicated questions posed by a situation that the chamber has rarely faced.
The Constitution places no explicit prohibition on felons serving in Congress or running for reelection, even after they are sentenced. And there is no other automatic mechanism that would strip Menendez of his committee positions or right to vote in the Senate, leaving those decisions to his colleagues.
In the 1980s, one of Menendez’s predecessors from New Jersey, Harrison A. Williams Jr., survived nine months in the Senate after he was convicted of bribery in connection with the Abscam scandal. He ultimately resigned rather than face a looming expulsion vote.
Decades later, Ted Stevens of Alaska saw his own corruption conviction overturned, but not until after he lost his bid for reelection.
Republicans have already begun asking whether Schumer would allow a senator convicted of acting as a foreign agent to continue serving on the Foreign Relations Committee or to receive the classified intelligence briefings that all senators are normally entitled to.
A spokesperson for Schumer declined to speculate about what would happen if Menendez did not resign.
Nor did Menendez immediately clarify whether he would continue running for reelection this fall as a political independent.
Analysts agree the senator has nearly no chance of winning an election that will take place just a week after his sentencing, but his continued presence on the ballot could prove damaging to Rep. Andy Kim, the Democratic nominee, if the contest is close in November. Republicans have nominated Curtis Bashaw, a real estate developer who is politically moderate.
“The senator owning up to this and stepping down is the best way for us to heal, and move forward — and, frankly, the fastest way,” Kim said.
Longtime allies who have broken with Menendez said they would not be surprised if he tried to remain in office and in the race as long as possible to maintain whatever leverage he can with party leaders and to allow him to keep raising campaign funds to spend on his legal defense.
Others suggested it could simply take time for the gravity of the situation to set in. For half a century, Menendez, 70, has ranked as the ultimate survivor in New Jersey’s notoriously bare-knuckle political arena. He watched as old allies were taken away in handcuffs, staved off one federal indictment and then, in 2017, beat another at trial. And as recently as last week, he expressed confidence the jury would accept his pronouncements of innocence.
Robert Kelly, Menendez’s chief of staff, said the senator’s comments outside the courthouse “speak for themselves.” He did not answer questions about Menendez’s future.
Still, the senator’s defiance did little to quiet chatter from Democrats in New Jersey who were already trying to game out whom Murphy would appoint to replace Menendez if his seat became vacant.
Several prominent Democrats were urging the governor to name Kim to the seat to effectively give their candidate the advantages of incumbency in November’s election.
But two people familiar with Murphy’s thinking, who insisted on anonymity, said he was unlikely to oblige — and might even consider appointing his wife and Kim’s former rival, Tammy Murphy.
That possibility underscored the hard feelings that remain in the state after a bitter and brief primary fight between Kim and Tammy Murphy this spring. It also infuriated some Democrats who openly warned the governor not to put his own family over the party’s interests.
“At a time when the state is losing a senator with decades of seniority, this Senate seat should not be treated as a launchpad for someone who wants to spend a few months socializing at Cafe Milano,” said Julie Roginsky, a political consultant who helped orchestrate Phil Murphy’s rise to the governorship.
Others suggested that the governor should consider a history-making appointment, such as elevating a lawmaker like Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman to be the state’s first Black female senator.
Watson Coleman did not discourage the idea. Her spokesperson, Mike Shanahan, said she had been “committed to public service her entire life and would gladly continue to serve New Jersey in whatever capacity is asked of her,” though he added she “doesn’t expect that call.”
Murphy offered few clues in a statement.
“In the event of a vacancy,” he said, “I will exercise my duty to make a temporary appointment to ensure the people of New Jersey have the representation they deserve.”
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