Ryan Nobles is joining us now from Capitol Hill.
Ryan, it wasn't 30 minutes ago that you and I
were on the air here talking about the possibility that
something like this could happen, and now he is.
Will you tell us?
The reporting seems to suggest he is calling folks and
telling them.
Has he filed anything formally on this yet?
As far as we can tell, he has not filed
anything formally yet.
Hallie and I do think that's an important part of
this discussion.
But what we can report?
My colleagues Kate Santalis, Julie Sorkin, Carol Lee and Frank
Thorpe have been burning up the phones throughout New Jersey
and Washington to try and get this information.
And we have now concluded through various sources that Senator
Bob Menendez is reaching out to allies and letting them
know that he does intend to resign in the near
future when that happens.
Does he submit that letter today, tomorrow, later this week?
That remains an open question, but he is at least
telling people close to him that that is his intention.
This, of course, does not come as a surprise, especially
given the fact that 44 Democratic senators have already called
on him to resign.
A wider within that group of 44 senators, there have
been a number, including his seatmate in New Jersey, Senator
Cory Booker, who have said that they will move to
expel him maybe as perhaps as soon as next week
if he does not submit that resignation letter.
When we say 44 Democratic senators, Hallie, it's important to
keep that in mind.
Democrats control the Senate by just one vote.
They have a couple of independents that caucus with them.
And then there are three senators who sit on the
Senate Ethics Committee.
The senators that sit on the Senate Ethics Committee are
not allowed to voice their opinion publicly about a matter
like this because Menendez is also being investigated by the
Ethics Committee.
So when you take out the independence, you take out
the senators named Menendez and you take out the independence
and the Ethics Committee, people that are sitting in this
committee, virtually every single Democratic senator is, is called on
Menendez to resign.
So it's not a surprise that he would take this
step and and do this on his own.
Now, the way we understand the process is that the
letter of resignation would first go to New Jersey's governor,
Governor Murphy.
He would get that letter and then that letter would
be transmitted to the Senate, which would then begin the
resignation process.
Governor Murphy would then appoint a temporary replacement for Menendez
that would essentially serve out the end of his term.
His term ends at the end of 2024.
And of course, there is an active campaign right now
to replace him under any circumstances.
And we know Andy Kim, the New Jersey congressman, was
the is the Democratic nominee.
He won the Democratic primary.
Now, there are still a number of wrinkles that need
to be ironed out here.
Hallie, yes, we know that he's telling his allies that
he plans to resign.
He is technically still on the ballot as an independent
candidate in the fall election.
He we have not gotten signals definitively as to what
that means for his political campaign.
You would assume that if he's not planning on staying
in the Senate any longer, that he also would not
intend to continue to run for re election.
But that's a live ball.
That's something we don't specifically have reporting on yet.
So that's one of the things we're trying to drill
down.
But the big news right now, Senator Bob Menendez telling
his allies that he does intend to resign from the
United States Senate, ending a prolific career in Congress.
He served as a member of the House and a
member of the Senate, rising all the way to the
level as the powerful chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
And it was that post at the Foreign Relations Committee
where prosecutors laid out a comprehensive case, arguing that he
was using his influence on that committee to benefit three
different businessmen with ties to both Egypt and Qatar and
in exchange received close to $500,000 in cash, gold bars,
a Mercedes-Benz for his wife, and many other gifts and
benefits.
As a result of that transactional relationship, the prosecutors were
able to convince a jury he was convicted of.
It's also worth pointing out, Hallie, as we as we
break down the the fallout from this case, this is
now the second time that the Merrick Garland LED Department
of Justice has won a conviction of a prominent Democrat
in just the past couple of months.
Of course, the first being Hunter Biden.
That was through a special counsel investigation, but it was
through the Department of Justice.
Hunter Biden found guilty on that gun charge from just
a couple of weeks ago.
And now you have Bob Menendez, a sitting United States
senator, profound guilty through this Department of Justice and is
now facing the prospect of decades in prison.
That's a counterpoint to the situation you see playing out.