WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) today released the following statement after the House of Representatives voted to approve articles of impeachment against the President of the United States:

“I hope that all Americans appreciate the true gravity and solemnity of this moment. Tonight, the House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment charging the President with abusing his power to extract political favors from a foreign power and then obstructing congressional investigations by refusing to produce documents and blocking critical witnesses.

“Now that the House has acted, we in the Senate must perform our constitutional duty. We must respect the will of the framers, who entrusted in the Senate the sole and awesome power of conducting a trial, and if necessary, removing a President. As one of 100 jurors, I pledge to treat this responsibility with the utmost seriousness and professionalism.

“As a trial gets underway in the Senate, I am gravely concerned that Majority Leader McConnell, far from remaining an impartial juror, is coordinating with the President, the defendant in this case, and injecting politics in the process instead of holding a fair trial that honors the Constitution. By dismissing a reasonable requests to hear from witnesses with direct knowledge of President Trump’s conduct, Senate Republicans are not only denying the American people the opportunity to know all the facts, but denying the President the due process he says the House has denied him.

“It is not the role of the Senate to partake in a massive cover up out of loyalty to any President. It is the role of the Senate to hear all the evidence, including testimony from key witnesses, in order to make a solemn determination. I implore my Republican colleagues to take this process seriously and to listen to the evidence without a predetermined decision. It’s time we act as patriots rather than partisans, and put our oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution above partisanship.

“Regardless of the Senate trial’s outcome, one thing is clear. The House’s impeachment of President Trump sends a strong message to all future Presidents, whether Republican or Democrat, that corrupting our foreign policy and national security priorities in order to invite foreign interference in our democracy is not only unlawful but downright un-American.”

###