Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) called for Senator Bob Menendez to resign after the New Jersey Democrat was convicted Tuesday on a slew of corruption charges.
“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said in a social media statement less than twenty minutes after Menendez was convicted on all charges brought in this trial.
Menendez was found guilty of 16 felony charges related to obstruction of justice, acting as a foreign agent, bribery, extortion, and honest services wire fraud. In prior statements, Schumer had stopped short of calling for Menendez to resign, only saying he was “very disappointed” in the New Jersey Democrat for failing to meet the standards of the U.S. Senate.
Menendez filed paperwork in early June to run for reelection as an independent. He said in March that he was “hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election.” Menendez’s conviction has likely erased any chance for a fourth term, but he has not yet removed his name from the ballot.
Representative Andy Kim (D., N.J.) is favored to take Menendez’s seat after winning the Democratic nomination in June. Polling from before the first presidential debate showed Kim ahead of Republican nominee Curtis Bashaw by 6 points, with Menendez only taking 3 percent of those surveyed.
Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, as well as three New Jersey businessmen on a slew of bribery and other corruption charges. Among other crimes, he and his wife accepted bribes in exchange for help with legal issues. Menendez was also convicted of accepting bribes from Qatar and Egypt to work as a foreign agent while chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.