(Headline USA) Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., introduced a resolution this week that would ban his colleague, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., from receiving classified briefings or serving on committees.
The measure did not specifically name Menendez, but it includes three offenses that would make a senator eligible for internal sanctions: acting as a foreign agent, compromising U.S. national security, and mishandling classified information.
Menendez has been indicted for accepting bribes for political favors and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Despite the charges against him, Menendez still attended a classified Senate briefing on the Ukraine war last week. When asked why he was allowed into the briefing, Menendez insisted that he has a right to classified information and denied that he had been barred from the meeting by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
“First of all, you’re wrong about that. He didn’t say ‘You can’t go’ and he didn’t not let me,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju. “You know, Manu, I know you’ve got to make news. Bottom line is, I’m a United States senator, I have my security credentials, and an accusation is just that. It’s not proof of anything.”
Menendez’s defense was unacceptable to Fetterman, who told reporters in response that Democrats need to “make a statement” and “force people to come down” on one side of the question: “Is it appropriate for a man who’s been accused of acting as a foreign agent [to be] receiving [that] kind of classified briefings?
“It’s astonishing to me how anyone would be OK with that,” Fetterman added.
The Pennsylvania Democrat was the first senator to call for Menendez’s resignation after he and his wife were indicted on bribery charges in September. He has also called on the Senate to expel Menendez after the New Jersey Democrat announced that he would not resign.
