"Guilt is decided by a jury:" Why Rubio said indicted U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez need not resign

Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is defending New Jersey Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez against demands he resign this week. The defense comes less than a week after Menendez was charged with three felony counts: conspiracy to commit bribery, honesty services fraud and extortion under color of official right.

Rubio said the details in the indictment are "nasty" but argued that a jury should decide his fate instead of fellow U.S. Senate members.

"The allegations against the Senior Senator from New Jersey are nasty & the evidence offered difficult to explain away," Rubio wrote in a Sept. 26 post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "But in America guilt is decided by a jury, not politicians in fear of their party losing a Senate seat."

Menendez pleaded not guilty to the charges Sept. 27, but more than half of his fellow Democratic senators, including New Jersey counterpart Cory Booker, have called for his resignation. Menendez has stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

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Rubio serves on the foreign affairs panel with Menendez, and the two have worked on legislation on Cuba and other matters of mutual interest.

The two senators come from similar backgrounds: both were born in the United States to Cuban immigrants who left Cuba in the 1950s. When Rubio was sworn into the Senate in 2011, he and Menendez were the only two Latinos in the chamber.

Justice Department officials announced Sept. 22 that Menendez and his wife were indicted on federal bribery charges, alleging that the corruption involved gold bars, stacks of cash and using the senator's political power to benefit the Egyptian government. This is the second time Menendez is accused of wrongdoing, but the previous charges in 2015 were dropped in 2018.

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Multiple comments underneath Rubio's X post accused the Florida senator of defending Menendez only because the Republican has spoken out in defense of former President Donald Trump, who is facing four different sets of state and federal indictments.

But Rubio's defense of Trump has been, generally, more reassuring to the former president. While referring to the Menendez charges, Rubio said they were nasty and hard to explain away. By contrast, he called Trump's alleged illegal possession and handling of documents, including what are reportedly extremely sensitive secrets, a "storage issue."

Rubio is not the only GOP lawmaker in the chamber to speak out in support of Menendez. U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas also said Sept. 26 that the jury and voters should decide on what happens with Menendez's political future.

Menendez said in a press conference that he would not step down despite the growing calls from more than a dozen lawmakers asking him to resign.

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“The allegations leveled against me are just that: allegations,” Menendez told a New Jersey crowd. “I recognized that this will be the biggest fight yet. But as I have stated through this whole process, I firmly believe that when all of the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I will still be New Jersey’s senior senator.”

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter forThe Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism:Subscribe today.