Menendez Tells Allies He Is Considering Resigning After Conviction

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey has privately told allies that he is considering resigning from Congress after his conviction in a sweeping bribery scheme rather than face a potential expulsion vote, according to three people familiar with his remarks.

Two of the people, who were not authorized to discuss the conversations, cautioned that Mr. Menendez has not made a final decision and could still fight to serve out his term. Publicly, he has maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal Tuesday’s guilty verdict on 16 felony counts.

“I have never been anything but a patriot,” Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, told reporters in New York after his conviction.

But the comments he made in phone calls with close associates in the hours after he left the Manhattan courthouse suggest for the first time that Mr. Menendez has absorbed how rapidly his political path forward is crumbling — and may be looking to avoid further public humiliation.

He was under intense pressure from fellow Democrats in New Jersey and Washington. In a series of interviews and statements after the trial’s conclusion, longtime friends in the Senate said one by one that they could no longer tolerate his presence on Capitol Hill and were prepared to vote to expel him if he did not leave voluntarily.

Perhaps most significantly, Senator Cory Booker, a fellow New Jerseyan who has called Mr. Menendez a friend and mentor, volunteered to lead the expulsion effort.