Bob Menendez to resign from Senate amid Democratic pressure after guilty verdict

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40 Democratic senators demand Sen. Bob Menendez to quit

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Jon Bramnick denounces political corruption in his state.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., will resign from the Senate after significant pressure from Democrats to do so following a guilty verdict in his federal corruption case.

A resignation letter from the senator was entered into the congressional record on Tuesday by Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who was acting as chair of the Senate. 

Menendez informed Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., that he would be resigning after Aug. 20 in the correspondence, which was obtained by Fox News. 

"While I fully intend to appeal the jury's verdict, all the way and including to the Supreme Court, I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important work," he wrote, likely in reference to a recently launched Ethics Committee review and potential efforts to expel him. 

The New Jersey Democrat was found guilty on all 16 counts last week, which included charges of extortion, bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, wire fraud, and acting as a foreign agent. The trial lasted nine weeks and the jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict. 

Menendez was found guilty by a jury in New York.  (Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., immediately called for Menendez’s resignation, despite initially holding off from doing so after the charges were announced. 

"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.

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Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., echoed Schumer’s call in his own statement, along with nearly every other Senate Democrat.

Menendez was accused of similar activities in 2015.  (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)

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The New Jersey senator has served in the chamber since 2006 and was re-elected twice. Before being a senator, Menendez served for several terms in the House of Representatives. 

"I am proud of the many accomplishments I've had on behalf of New Jersey, such as leading the federal effort for Superstorm Sandy recovery, preserving and funding Gateway and leading the federal efforts to help save our hospitals, State and municipalities, as well as New Jersey families through a once in a century COVID pandemic," he said in the Tuesday letter. "These successes led you, Governor, to call me the ‘Indispensable Senator.’"

In 2015, Menendez was indicted on charges of conspiracy, bribery, and honest services fraud in relation to gifts from a wealthy ophthalmologist who the government alleged he was doing political favors for in return. However, a mistrial was declared in 2017 when jurors could not agree on a verdict. By 2018, prosecutors said they would not seek to retry the senator. 

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An evidence photo shows gold bars that were gifted by Fred Daibes and found in Democratic New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and Nadine Menendez’s home.  (United States District Court )

If Menendez did not take the recent advice of Democrats to resign following the verdict, some had threatened the route of expulsion from the Senate. But that would require a two-thirds majority vote in the chamber, which can be difficult to achieve among lawmakers. 

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U.S. Capitol Building  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Expulsion is also a rarely used mechanism and no lawmaker has been cast out of the chamber since the 1800s. There was an effort to expel former Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., in 1995, but he ultimately resigned to avoid that fate. 

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Only 15 senators have ever been expelled. Fourteen of those expulsions were due to support for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  

In other cases, efforts to expel senators, in many instances for corruption, have ended due to the lawmaker leaving office. On some occasions, expulsion proceedings were also dropped. 

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.