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Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer broke with fellow Democrats on Wednesday by refusing to call for the resignation of embattled Sen. Robert Menendez.
Mr. Schumer said he was “deeply disappointed and disturbed” by the bribery and public corruption charges against the New Jersey Democrat but that he would withhold further judgment until after Mr. Menendez privately addresses Senate Democrats on Thursday.
“I’ve known Sen. Menendez a very long time, and I was truly, truly upset,” Mr. Schumer of New York told reporters. “But we all know that for senators there is a much, much higher standard, and clearly, when you read the indictment, Sen. Menendez fell way, way below that standard.”
“Tomorrow, he will address the Democratic Caucus,” he said. “We will see what happens after that.”
Mr. Menendez pleaded not guilty earlier Wednesday in federal court in New York. He said that he will not resign.
The third-term senator and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, are accused of accepting lavish gifts from three New Jersey businessmen — including around $500,000 in cash, gold bars worth more than $100,000 and a luxury car — in exchange for nonclassified information to benefit tycoons and the Egyptian government.
Similar bribery charges against Mr. Menendez from 2015 ended in a mistrial in 2017. He was reelected in 2018.
Mr. Menendez has said the new charges against him were fueled by his political opponents and because he is Cuban American. He’s relinquished his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee but remains on the panel.
More than half of Senate Democrats are pushing Mr. Menendez to resign, including the four highest-ranking Democrats below Mr. Schumer.
At least one other influential Democrat who’s not called for Mr. Menendez’s resignation, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner of Virginia, said he’s willing to give Mr. Menendez the “courtesy” of hearing him out during Thursday’s private address to Senate Democrats, before forming an opinion.
“These are extraordinarily damning charges, but I’m going to give him the courtesy,” Mr. Warner told The Washington Times. “I expect I’ll have something to say afterwards.”
But the avalanche of resignation calls foreshadow that the party would be unlikely to support a reelection campaign by Mr. Menendez. His third term ends next year. He has not said whether he’ll seek a fourth.
Still, Mr. Menendez maintains he’ll be exonerated and has no plans to depart the Senate before his term expires.
In his most recent exchange with reporters on Capitol Hill, Mr. Menendez responded when asked why he won’t resign: “Because I’m innocent. What is wrong with you guys?”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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