Pressure mounts on Schumer to expel Menendez

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is under growing pressure to refer Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) conviction to the Senate Ethics Committee in preparation of a vote to expel Menendez from the Senate if he doesn’t resign of his own accord.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), who would appoint Menendez’s temporary replacement, called on the Senate Tuesday to vote to expel Menendez if he doesn’t resign immediately, a call that was echoed by Rep. Miki Sherrill (D-N.J.).

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) on Tuesday called for Menendez to resign or be expelled, and Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) also said they are prepared to vote to expel him.

“Senator Menendez has been found guilty of political corruption by a jury of his peers,” Rosen said. “As I’ve already called for, I believe he should resign immediately from the U.S. Senate. If he refuses to resign, he should be expelled.”

Before a New York jury found Menendez guilty on 16 charges Tuesday, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Senate Democrat to publicly call for his colleague’s expulsion.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), who is running to become the next Senate GOP leader, on Tuesday said it would be “appropriate” to expel Menendez if he doesn’t resign.

Schumer called on Menendez to step down from office in the wake of the guilty verdict but stopped short of announcing any plans to advance a vote on expulsion.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” he said in a statement.

A flood of other senators renewed their calls on Menendez to resign but stopped short of threatening expulsion.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) issued new statements on the social media site X Tuesday calling for Menendez to leave office.

Senate sources say that Schumer could bring an expulsion resolution directly to the floor but note that recent chamber precedent would have the matter referred first to the Senate’s Select Committee on Ethics, which is chaired by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).

One Senate rules expert said an expulsion resolution would be considered a privileged resolution under Senate precedent, which means any senator could bring it up for a floor debate. 

Fetterman said in September that he was looking at bringing a privileged resolution to the floor as an option to force discussion on the matter. 

Coons and the other members of the Ethics panel could conduct a short investigation or move quickly to recommend an expulsion resolution based on the charges in the indictment, the evidence presented at trial and the jury’s finding.

The Ethics Committee had held off on investigating the charges against Menendez to avoid interfering with the federal prosecution in New York, according to a Senate aide.

Murphy urged Schumer and other Democrats to act quickly if Menendez tries to hold onto his seat.

“If he refuses to vacate his office, I call on the U.S. Senate to vote to expel him. In the event of a vacancy, I will exercise my duty to make a temporary appointment to ensure the people of New Jersey have the representation they deserve,” he said in a statement released after the conviction was announced.

Sherrill, a Democrat representing New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, said if Menendez “refuses to resign from the Senate, he should be expelled.”  

Fetterman renewed his call to expel Menendez after federal prosecutors filed a second superseding indictment accusing his colleague of being offered luxury wristwatches in exchange for making positive comments about Qatar.

“Now, accused of selling his honor and our nation for a $24,000 watch. Accused as a foreign agent for *two* nations. How much more before we finally expel @SenatorMenendez?” Fetterman asked on the social media site X in January.

There is Senate precedent from the 1860s for bringing an expulsion resolution directly to the floor. Given the gravity of the charges on which Menendez was found guilty, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and acting as a foreign agent, senators may agree unanimously to proceed swiftly.

It would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate to expel the veteran senator, who was appointed to the chamber by New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) in 2006 to fill the final year of his Senate term after he left Washington to become governor.

Sources familiar with Senate procedure say the most relevant precedent is the expulsion proceeding against late Sen. Harrison “Pete” Williams in 1982. The Ethics panel took up the matter after the New Jersey Democrat was convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges stemming from the FBI’s famed Abscam sting operation.

The Senate Ethics Committee took up an investigation of Williams after he was convicted in May of 1981 and later recommended he be expelled from the upper chamber, a matter the full Senate debated in 1982.

Williams resigned after Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.) delivered a blistering speech condemning his colleague for his unethical behavior amidst a floor debate about whether expulsion should be reserved for cases of treason.

“If nontreasonous behavior be the sole benchmark for fitness to serve in this body, then one must ask how fit is this body in which we serve?” Eagleton asked hotly on the Senate floor.

Williams avoided the indignity of being expelled by announcing his resignation in a letter on March 11, 1982.

 Williams was found guilty on all counts against him on May 1, 1981, but the Senate didn’t get around to debating his expulsion until 10 months later.

Since that debate more than 40 years ago, the Senate has since drifted further and further away from conducting business under “regular order.”

Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), the Democratic nominee for Senate in New Jersey, said Menendez should leave the seat immediately.

“I believe the only course of action for him is to resign his seat immediately. The people of New Jersey deserve better,” he said.

The Senate Historical Office notes that in July of 1861 Sen. Daniel Clark of New Hampshire, a Republican, called up a resolution on the Senate floor to expel ten southern senators who failed to show up for an emergency session and accused them of supporting the “conspiracy for the destruction of the Union and Government.”

Sen. James Brayard Jr., a Democrat from Delaware, initially objected to the resolution but it ultimately passed by a vote of 32-10. 

As a result, the Senate expelled Sens. James Mason (D-Va.), Robert M.T. Hunter (D-Va.), Thomas Clingman (D-N.C.), Thomas Bragg (D-N.C.), James Chestnut (D-S.C.), A.O.P. Nicholson (D-Tenn.), William Sebastian (D-Ark.), Charles Mitchel (D-Ark.), John Hemphill (D-Texas) and Louis Wigfall (D-Texas), according to the Historical Office.

Sarah Fortinsky contributed.