By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's indictment on corruption charges on Wednesday raised the possibility of Republicans gaining a 55th Senate seat to strengthen their hand in policy fights with President Barack Obama.
Federal prosecutors indicted the New Jersey senator on charges of accepting gifts from a donor and friend, Florida-based ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to benefit Melgen's personal and financial interests. Melgen was also charged.
Menendez, 61, a senior member of Senate foreign policy, banking and finance committees, said he had done nothing wrong and had no plans to leave the Senate. He described his relationship with Melgen as a close friendship.
"I'm confident, at the end of the day, I will be vindicated," he told a news conference in New Jersey on Wednesday evening.
Senate leaders, including some Republicans, have stood behind Menendez for years amid previous reports he was being investigated, none of which led to any actions against him.
Menendez said he had agreed to step down as the ranking member, or top Democrat, on the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is expected to be replaced by Maryland Senator Ben Cardin.
If Menendez were eventually forced to resign from his Senate seat, New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, would likely appoint a Republican replacement to serve until a special election. That would bring the number of Republicans in the Senate to 55, one seat closer to the 60-seat "super majority" needed to overcome Democrats' procedural roadblocks and advance legislation.
Gaining that incremental edge could mean the difference in a political fight over confirming Loretta Lynch, Obama's nominee to be the next U.S. attorney general, who is opposed by many Republicans. That vote is expected to be very close.
A Menendez resignation could also put Republicans just one vote shy of clearing the way for passage of a human trafficking bill with anti-abortion language, which Democrats have blocked.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez has criticized Obama administration policy, particularly on Cuba and Iran. Menendez's name, with Republican co-sponsors, is on two bills related to international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program that Obama has threatened to veto.
But he is a strong supporter of the White House on other issues.
Menendez has been a central player in the push for immigration reform, urging a pathway to citizenship for nearly 12 million undocumented residents of the United States.
Menendez is also a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees Wall Street regulation, and the tax law-writing Senate Finance Committee.
No laws or constitutional prohibitions bar Menendez from continuing to cast votes or otherwise work as a senator while under indictment.
Menendez was chairman of the foreign relations panel until January, when Republicans took control of the Senate after sweeping election victories in November. He spent 13 years in the House of Representatives and was re-elected to his Senate seat in 2012. His current term ends in January 2019.
He is Cuban-American and one of the most senior Hispanic politicians in the United States.
The last senator to be indicted, Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, did not resign after he was charged with failing to report gifts and services from an oil company in 2008. Stevens lost his race for re-election that year, and his conviction was dismissed in 2009.
Democrat Harrison Williams was convicted in 1981 for taking bribes and resigned from the Senate in 1982. He held the New Jersey Senate seat now occupied by Menendez.