Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.Y.) to resign from the Senate after a jury in New York convicted him on 16 counts of bribery, extortion and honest services wire fraud.
“In light of this guilty verdict, Sen. Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said in a statement.
The Democratic leader, however, stopped short of threatening to bring an expulsion resolution to the Senate floor, which could pass with an overwhelming majority given the severity of the crimes.
Menendez is expected to appeal the verdict, according to legal experts.
Schumer earlier this year declined to call on Menendez to resign, even though more than half the Senate Democratic Conference urged him to step down from office after federal prosecutors accused him of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and other gifts.
Menendez voluntarily agreed to step down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September after prosecutors unveiled the charges.
“The Senate has certain standards that we must live up to. I am very disappointed that Sen. Menendez has not lived up to those standards,” Schumer told reporters in March.
The leader had repeated that line several times when asked about Menendez’s continued attendance at classified briefings and private caucus meetings.
The veteran New Jersey senator has missed work in the Senate for the past several weeks to attend his criminal trial in New York.
