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We said it last fall after he was indicted, and we’ll say it again now that he has been convicted: U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez needs to resign.
And if the Democrat from New Jersey doesn’t do so immediately, his colleagues in the U.S. Senate should vote to expel him. At any time — but especially a time of great distrust in U.S. institutions, with all sorts of apparent conflicts of interest involving Congress and other federal officials — it would be simply outrageous to allow a felon convicted of bribery to continue to serve in the Senate.
We would hope that voters would apply the same standard to people running for president, as Donald Trump seeks to return to the White House having been convicted on 34 felony counts. But Trump is not currently in office. Menendez is, and his colleagues have a say in whether he continues to cloud the Senate with his corruption.
The House of Representatives already had the good sense, in a bipartisan if delayed manner, to expel former U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, as he faced campaign finance fraud charges. By that standard, Menendez should have been sent packing from the Senate months ago.
Everyone, including prominent politicians, have a right to a trial and to the presumption of innocence. But Menendez has been afforded those rights and processes under the law, and he has been found guilty. The crimes he has been convicted of — centering around a layered bribery scheme including his Senate office, foreign government officials and businesses — are incompatible with the public office he holds and the body in which he serves.
Either he needs to recognize this, and soon, or his colleagues need to make it clear to him and to the American public that there are still ethical standards for public service in this country.
If Democratic leaders are at all worried about the impact, even momentarily, on their slim majority in the Senate, we will re-emphasize to them what we said to Republican House leadership during the Santos saga. Allowing political considerations to supersede ethical ones would be shameful. It would be shameful for Democratic Senate leadership and shameful for the entire body.
Encouragingly, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and a growing list of colleagues have now called for Menendez’s resignation. But if he doesn’t do that immediately, they must be prepared to act themselves.
“As I said when he was charged, public service is a sacred trust and Senator Menendez has broken that trust,” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, said on X, formerly called Twitter. “Now that a jury of his peers has found him guilty on all 16 charges, including acting as a foreign agent, Senator Menendez should resign or face expulsion from the Senate.”
Yes, expulsion would be a drastic step given that only 15 senators have ever been expelled in U.S. history, almost all due to Confederate involvement in the Civil War. But as we said with Santos, politicians who shatter convention (and, in this case, law) do not get to then use convention as a shield.
The same remains true for Menendez, except that he has been found guilty of breaking federal law. He has abused his public position for his own enrichment, he has been found guilty by a jury of his peers, and if he won’t do the decent thing and resign, his peers in the Senate must expel him.
