Menendez to address Senate Democrats amid resignation calls over bribery charges

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) will speak to Senate Democrats on Thursday as the conference decides how to proceed following his federal indictment on bribery charges that touched on his official work.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the only remaining member of leadership who has not called on Menendez to resign, told reporters on Wednesday that the New Jersey senator had requested to speak to the entire conference. Schumer suggested he would have more to say on the matter after the meeting.

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Menendez is facing the fight of his political life given that more than half of the Democratic conference has called for his resignation. The New Jersey Democrat will need to convince the remainder of his colleagues on Thursday that he deserves to stay in the Senate while he fights the charges.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) told reporters on Wednesday that he had not spoken out on the charges up to now because he wanted to hear from Menendez directly first.

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“These are extremely damning charges, and I have seen the actions that Sen. Menendez took this morning,” Warner said, referencing the senator’s not-guilty plea. “He asked to speak to the Democratic conference tomorrow. I’m going to grant him that courtesy, but I expect I’ll have much more to say afterwards.”

Also on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting is addressing how to proceed concerning Menendez receiving classified briefings.

Federal prosecutors have accused Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, of illegally using the senator’s position as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to peddle influence with donors and benefit the Egyptian government in exchange for cash, gold bars, and other valuables. The senator, who is required to relinquish his Foreign Relations Committee chairmanship while under indictment, has dismissed the charges as part of a larger “smear campaign” against him and vowed to fight them.

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Menendez was defiant at a Monday press conference, predicting he would be exonerated and accusing prosecutors of framing the allegations against him to appear “as salacious as possible.” He and his wife pleaded not guilty to the charges on Wednesday.

As Menendez was in federal court, Schumer passed a resolution by unanimous consent replacing Menendez as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).