Illinois’ two U.S. senators have joined a growing chorus of Democrats in the chamber calling for the resignation of veteran U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey after a federal indictment last week alleged he used his political influence in exchange for bribes.

       Following the lead of New Jersey’s other Democratic senator, Cory Booker, who called for Menendez’s resignation Tuesday after being a longtime ally, Sen. Dick Durbin said it was time for Menendez to step down from the Senate seat he has held since 2006.

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       “Leaders in New Jersey, including the Governor and my Senate colleague Cory Booker, have made it clear that Sen. Menendez can no longer serve. He should step down,” Durbin wrote Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

       Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asks a question as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., listens during a Senate Judiciary Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons hearing on Sept. 13, 2023, in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

       Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. Senate, had refrained from calling for Menendez’s ouster following the New Jersey senator’s indictment Friday.

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       The indictment alleges Menendez and his wife, Nadine, accepted cash, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, home furnishings and mortgage payments in exchange for using his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to provide information benefiting the Egyptian government. Authorities found $480,000 in cash and gold bars hidden in his clothing and in his home.

       [ US Sen. Bob Menendez pleads not guilty to pocketing bribes in a wide-ranging corruption case ]

       Menendez, 69, has disputed the government’s charges and said he expects to be exonerated. He has said the cash was withdrawn from his personal bank account but he’s not explained how he obtained the gold bars. Under the Senate Democratic Caucus rules, he stepped down from his committee chairmanship Friday.

       On Wednesday, Menendez and his wife appeared in federal court in New York and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

       On Tuesday, Illinois’ other U.S. senator, Tammy Duckworth, called for Menendez to step down.

       “The charges against Sen. Menendez are very serious and deeply troubling allegations of abuse of the public trust and corruption,” Duckworth said in a statement.

       “For the same reasons he needed to step down as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, he should resign as senator,” she said.

       Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth heads to a vote on Capitol Hill on Sept. 6, 2023, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)

       While Menendez’s indictment was announced Friday, senators did not return to Washington until Tuesday and Booker’s call for his New Jersey colleague to resign led to a succession of similar statements from other Senate Democrats.

       Booker, in a statement, said the federal charges “are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with in order to be effective have been shaken to the core.”

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       More than half of the Senate Democratic Caucus has now called for Menendez to step aside.

       Some of the early caution to address Menendez’s legal problems stemmed from the Democrats’ one-seat majority in the chamber, though the extent of the charges against him raised concerns about whether he would prove to be a drag on other Democratic senators in 2024.

       Menendez‘s seat is up for election in 2024. If he were to step down, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, would appoint a replacement. Murphy also has called for Menendez to resign.

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