Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison in January 2025 after a jury convicted him on 16 felony corruption charges for accepting cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for steering billions in U.S. aid to Egypt and Qatar. FBI agents found $480,000 in cash stuffed into closets and jackets bearing Menendez''s name when they searched his New Jersey home in 2022. He resigned from the Senate in August 2024.
The Constitution lists bribery as one of three grounds for impeaching presidents, vice presidents, and civil officers (along with treason and "high crimes and misdemeanors"). But Congress members aren''t subject to impeachment—the Senate concluded in the 1790s that representatives and senators are not "civil officers." Instead, each chamber can expel its own members with a two-thirds vote under Article I, Section 5. This means while Menendez faced criminal prosecution, he couldn''t be impeached; the Senate could only have expelled him before he resigned.