Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) will briefly step down as chairman of the Senate International Family members Committee as he faces federal corruption fees, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) mentioned Friday.
“Bob Menendez has been a devoted public servant and is at all times combating laborious for the folk of New Jersey. He has a proper to due procedure and a good trial,” Schumer mentioned in a short lived commentary. “Senator Menendez has rightly made up our minds to step down briefly from his place as Chairman of the International Family members Committee till the subject has been resolved.”
It’s no longer a lot of a concession through Menendez at hand over the committee gavel. It seems like he had no selection, given the foundations of the Democratic Convention, which state:
“Any Member of the Convention who serves as chair or score member of a status, make a choice, particular, or joint committee who’s charged with a prison shall in an instant step apart in prefer of the following maximum senior eligible Democratic member of the committee in query, who shall function appearing chair or score member.”
The New Jersey Democrat was once indicted previous Friday on fees of accepting bribes together with $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in money in trade for professional acts that aided an Egyptian American businessman.
Menendez has denied the allegations, pronouncing in a commentary that he’s being prosecuted through individuals who “merely can’t settle for {that a} first technology Latino-American from humble beginnings may just upward thrust to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and difference.”
It’s the second one time that Menendez has been indicted on corruption fees. In 2017, his trial ended with a deadlocked jury. He received reelection in 2018.
A handful of Democrats are already calling at the New Jersey senator to surrender, together with former U.S. Lawyer Basic Eric Holder, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey Rep. Andy Kim.