If he doesn't resign, could indicted Bob Menendez be expelled from the Senate?

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is refusing so far to heed the calls of others to step down from the Senate as he faces serious bribery and extortion charges, including allegations he provided highly sensitive information to the government of Egypt.

During a morning press conference Monday, he denied the accusations laid out in a federal indictment unsealed Friday.

As Democratic leaders across the state call for his resignation, others are stepping up to challenge him in the 2024 primary, including Rep. Andy Kim and progressive activist Larry Hamm.

But with the primary election nine months away — and a trial likely to drag on longer than that — are there alternative or quicker options available for fellow Democrats to remove Menendez from his seat?

"Most of the time when you have this situation, its not the mechanics that pressure members out, it’s the internal political pressure that forces members out," said Joshua Huder, senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. "They lose sway within their political support back at home, they lose the support of the party, any sort of mechanisms or power that would give them the ability to get reelected sort of pushes them out."

Impeachment is not an option

The first federal official to be impeached in the United States was William Blount, a senator from Tennessee, for his role in a conspiracy with frontiersmen to seize land in Louisiana and the Floridas from Spain, then a U.S. ally, to transfer the territory to the British.

His impeachment trial was dismissed on Jan. 14, 1799; the chamber said it lacked jurisdiction because the Senate had already voted to expel him a year and a half earlier.

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“Its dismissal of the Blount case set a precedent that still holds today — a U.S. senator cannot be impeached,” the U.S. Senate website says.

Impeachment has generally been held for civil officers and members of the judiciary and the executive branch, said Stephen Spaulding, vice president at Common Cause, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group.

More: Live updates: What Bob Menendez said in his speech to the public after indictment

More: Rep. Andy Kim will fight fellow Democrat Menendez for Senate seat after indictment

Expulsion

While the process from impeaching Blount to the actual trial took a year and a half, the Senate managed to remove him by expulsion — which requires a two-thirds supermajority vote — much more quickly.

A Senate committee recommended expelling him on July 6, 1797, and he was expelled just two days later with a 25-to-1 vote.

“Anything can move quickly in the Senate if senators want to,” Spaulding said.

The punishment granted in Article I, Section 5, of the Constitution has been rare: The Senate has expelled 15 members since 1789, and the 14 cases other than Blount's occurred during the Civil War for support of the Confederacy.

“It’s a high bar,” Spaulding said.

"Even members who are hugely unpopular, like George Santos from Long Island, are still in Congress," Huder said.

The Constitution doesn’t outline specific grounds needed for expulsion, but it has “generally concerned cases of perceived disloyalty to the United States, or the conviction of a criminal statutory offense which involved abuse of one’s official position,” according to a 2012 Congressional Research Service report on removing members of Congress from office.

In addition to the 15 senators actually expelled, the Senate considered expulsion in 15 other cases over the years. In five cases, senators resigned before expulsion could occur. In one case, the senator’s term expired. In seven cases ranging from embezzlement to Mormonism, the senators were not expelled. And in two election fraud allegation cases, the Senate did not take any action after concluding that it did not have sufficient evidence.

The most recent case, in 1995, involved Sen. Robert Packwood, an Oregon Republican, who resigned after the ethics committee recommended expulsion for abuse of power.

The only New Jersey senator recommended for expulsion was Harrison Williams, in 1982, though he resigned before a Senate vote. He was convicted of nine counts of conspiracy and bribery in the Abscam FBI sting, which brought down seven members of Congress.

It’s unclear whether the Senate would consider this move with Menendez. New Jersey's other senator, fellow Democrat Cory Booker, has been noticeably silent since the indictment was unsealed. As of Monday, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio were the only Democratic senators calling for Menendez’s resignation.

More: In exchange for illicit payoffs, Bob Menendez gave sensitive info to Egypt, indictment says

More: NJ business owner with stark change in fortune is at center of Menendez investigation

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that Menendez “has been a dedicated public servant” and “has a right to due process and a fair trial.”

If Menendez did choose to resign or was expelled, Gov. Phil Murphy would choose his successor to serve through the end of his term, Jan. 3, 2025.

No power for recall

Voters cannot have a direct say — the Constitution does not include the power for constituents to recall a member of the U.S. Congress.

Drafters had considered including a provision for recall in the Constitution, but language wasn’t included in the final version sent to states for ratification, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Senate Select Committee on Ethics

Each chamber of Congress has a committee evenly split with Republican and Democratic members to investigate charges of misconduct and make recommendations.

For example, in the case of former Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, the committee “severely admonished” him in July 2002 and wrote in a letter that he had to pay back a former donor, David Chang, the cost and interest for a television, a CD player and earrings that the businessman gave to the senator. Torricelli denied wrongdoing, but he later dropped out of his 2002 reelection bid.

In May 2002, Chang was sentenced to 18 months in prison for obstructing justice and making more than $50,000 worth of illegal campaign contributions to Torricelli’s 1996 account.

Typically, if the committee has an inquiry open and a senator is indicted, the committee will pause its investigation and allow the criminal process to play out, said Donald Sherman, senior vice president and general counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group.

“They don't want to take action that might potentially undermine the investigation, but also, the criminal prosecutors have more compelling tools,” Sherman said. “Senators don’t like to sit in judgment of their colleagues.”

In April 2018, the committee sent a letter of admonition to Menendez, finding he “knowingly and repeatedly accepted gifts of significant value from [friend and donor Salomon] Melgen” and “used your position as a member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgen’s personal and business interests.” Menendez was indicted in 2015, and acquitted of all charges in January 2018 after a 2017 trial ended with the jury deadlocked.

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The admonition letter said Menendez violated Senate rules and “reflected discredit upon the Senate” and ordered him to repay the fair market value of gifts he hadn’t already repaid and to amend his financial disclosure reports to include the gifts.

After his second indictment unsealed Friday, Menendez is so far staying put.

“The allegations leveled against me are just that — allegations," he said Monday. “I recognize this will be the biggest fight yet, but as I have stated throughout this whole process, I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bob Menendez refuses to resign. Could he be expelled from the Senate?