well the state watched yesterday as a jury handed down guilty verdict after guilty verdict in the corruption trial of us Senator Bob Menendez and his codefendants Fred Davies and will Hana in the end all 18 counts that were charged came back guilty and that included bribery obstruction of justice and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent as the news settled in several lawmakers in New Jersey renewed their calls for Mendez to resign something the senator has defiantly refused to do even after the verdict came down it leaves the US Senate now with the option to vote him out but do they have the votes to do so and if he does leave what'll happen to the balance of power in the US Senate senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has more on the Fallout from the Senator's guilty verdict I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country I have never ever being a foreign agent Senator Bob Mendez vowed to battle on he's running for reele action as an independent but after a Manhattan jury convicted him on all counts fellow Democrats jumped on news shows a rockus caucus calling for his immediate resignation and threatening to expel him from the Senate the most selfish act possible is for Bob Menendez not to look in the mirror and realize for the good of his country if he cares about his country he needs to get out of town and by the way what jerk blames his new wife at the trial I mean who does that former Missouri Senator CLA mccal urged minority leader Chuck Schumer to call an expulsion vote next week and if Menendez still resists stepping down Jersey's Junior Senator said he'll step up a jury of his peers found by the highest criminal standard Beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty on all 16 charges and so yes he must stand up now and leave the Senate he must do that and if he refuses to do that uh many of us and I will lead that effort uh to make sure that he's removed from the Senate that would require a two-thirds majority including a few Republicans meantime Governor Murphy stated he's ready to appoint a placeholder to menendez's seat pending this November's election Patricia Campos Medina wants the job she ran for Senate in the June Democratic primary and says Murphy needs to acknowledge the cultural impact of menendez's conviction this is a big LW for the Latino Community it's a big void that Latinos are going to feel for the next 20 years I think that that would go a long way for Latinos to stay committed to voting for Democrats in November Congressman Andy Kim Won that primary although it had cost house Democrats another vote by taking a senate seat now Kim could acrew a bit of seniority the focus is is is on uh what is next for Senator Mendez uh if he does step down or is expelled that is a Governor's decision in terms of who fills that role if asked I I would accept I don't think it's appropriate to appoint my opponent to that seat for a few months Republican Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw says Murphy's got plenty of other candidates from which to choose Basha agrees Menendez should resign but still backs Donald Trump for president despite his felony convictions no one found gold bars in Donald Trump's uh wardrobe you know this is an old case of some picadillos in the past I don't think they're comparable and I think the voters will decide in November on whether they want Donald Trump to be the leader on the other hand it is 34 felony counts and he was convicted by a jury of his peers I think that Donald Trump is running his race his mission is to defeat the Biden Administration meanwhile Menendez has been barred from attending intelligence briefings on Israel and given his conviction as a foreign agent willing to do favors for Egypt and cutter former prosecutors say I can't imagine anyone in the Senate uh struggling with the decision whether he should be sitting in and I'm sure the the executive branch would take would take the same view as long as you enriched him it didn't matter the sensitive nature of the information he had access to you know he was a senator for sale and and that was probably a scary thing for a lot of the jurors former Federal prosecutor Chris gion says the courts ordered a pre-sentencing report for Menendez who faces decades in prison as for the cash the senator stashed because his Cuban family distrusted Banks ironically that was also seized by the FBI I'm Brenda Flanagan Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music]