Senate Ethics Committee initiates review of Sen. Bob Menendez’s alleged rules violations

By Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — The Senate Ethics Committee announced Monday that they have initiated a review of Sen. Bob Menendez’s alleged rules violations, a week after a jury found the New Jersey Democrat guilty on all counts in his federal corruption trial.

“Earlier today, the Committee notified Senator Menendez through his counsel that members voted unanimously to initiate an adjudicatory review of his alleged violations of Senate Rules,” Ethics Committee Chair Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, and ranking Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said in a joint statement. “The Committee anticipates completing the adjudicatory review promptly.”

This is the first step toward the Ethics Committee’s written report, which would include suggestions and recommendations for disciplinary action – including, potentially, expulsion.

Menendez, who has faced calls from within his own party to resign from the US Senate, was convicted last week of 16 counts — including bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent — for his role in a yearslong bribery scheme.

Menendez, who faces sentencing on October 29, has vowed to appeal the conviction and maintained he never violated his public oath and has never been anything “but a patriot of my country and for my country.”

“I have never, ever been a foreign agent, and the decision rendered by the jury today would put at risk every member of the US Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be,” Menendez said last week.

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