Bob Menendez verdict: Will he have to resign? How much prison time is he facing? What happens next?

A federal jury convicted U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez on bribery and corruption charges Tuesday, concluding the New Jersey Democrat had for years sold the powers of his office to foreign governments and three New Jersey businessmen seeking his assistance with their personal and professional travails.

The verdict rendered the three-term incumbent and former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the first senator ever convicted of acting as a foreign agent.

Yet, he continued to maintain his innocence afterward and vowed to appeal.

“I have never violated my public oath,” he told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, where his trial played out over the preceding nine weeks. “I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.”

With Menendez, 70, now facing the possible loss of his job and his freedom, what happens next?

The jury found Menendez guilty of all 16 counts that had been lodged against him, including charges of conspiracy, bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent. Prosecutors had accused him and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, of accepting bribes of cash, gold bars, and even a luxury car over a period of years.

» READ MORE: From gold bars to a pricey car: All the bribes Sen. Bob Menendez has been accused of accepting over the years

The panel also convicted two of the senator’s codefendants — Wael “Will” Hana, an Egyptian-American owner of a halal meat certification company in New Jersey, and Fred Daibes, a powerful Bergen County real estate developer.

Both men sought favors from Menendez in exchange for gifts. For Hana, Menendez pressured an official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop questioning a monopoly the government of Egypt had granted the businessman’s company, making it the sole firm capable of certifying U.S. meat imports complied with religious standards.

» READ MORE: Who is Bob Menendez’s wife, Nadine? Who else was charged in the indictment?

For Daibes, who was indicted on separate federal bank fraud charges in 2018, Menendez sought to install a U.S. Attorney in New Jersey who he believed would treat his benefactor more favorably. The effort failed, but the senator twice called U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger in an effort to persuade him, witnesses testified at trial.

Menendez was also accused of seeking to quash investigations in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office at the request of a third businessman, Jose Uribe, who pleaded guilty last year and testified against the others at trial.

Uribe and two associates had been implicated in an insurance fraud investigation. He told the jury he bought Menendez’s wife a Mercedes-Benz in April 2019 in exchange for the senator’s assistance. Though Menendez met with prosecutors in September of that year, they testified that those conversations did not change the course of their investigation.

» READ MORE: Bob Menendez’s wife, Nadine Arslanian, fatally hit a man in 2018. N.J. officials are now reportedly investigating.

The jury also concluded Tuesday that some of the assistance Menendez gave to those showering him with gifts unwittingly may have made him a foreign agent. Prosecutors described efforts by Hana to enlist the senator to assuage tensions between the U.S. and Egypt in 2015 after an American tourist was mistakenly injured during a military attack in the North African country.

The following year, Menendez, at the request of his wife and Hanna, met with an Egyptian general and, following that meeting, began urging the U.S. State Department to become more involved in a dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over a dam the former country was building on the Nile River.

Not immediately. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein is allowing the senator to remain free until his sentencing hearing set for Oct. 29. And it’s likely that even once that day comes, Menendez won’t immediately be taken into custody. Defendants who don’t pose an immediate danger or a risk of flight are routinely given time to order their affairs before reporting to start their sentences.

He’s facing a maximum prison term of 20 years on the most serious charges of which the jury convicted him Tuesday, but it’s likely he’ll get less than that. U.S. judges are guided in sentencing by guidelines that calculate a recommended range of sentence based on the seriousness of a defendant’s crimes, their background, and other factors including, in Menendez’s case, his abuse of the public trust. While those recommendations aren’t binding on the judge, most courts tend to stick at or near the recommended guideline range when crafting punishments.

Stein could also order Menendez to forfeit all of the proceeds he earned through his bribery scheme and bar him from holding public office in the future.

Not necessarily. Menendez, whose career in elected office in New Jersey has spanned four decades, could opt to serve out the rest of his term, which ends in January. However, political pressure he’s faced to resign — including from some Democrats — since his indictment last year is likely to intensify now that he’s been convicted.

Within minutes of Tuesday’s verdict, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had previously resisted sharing his opinions on what he thought Menendez should do, and several other top Democrats including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) called for him to step aside.

If Menendez refuses, the Senate could vote to expel him. Murphy would appoint an interim senator to serve out the rest of the term.

» READ MORE: Top Democrats call on on Sen. Bob Menendez to resign following guilty verdict

Though he opted not to run in the Democratic primary race for his seat this year — which was won by U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) — Menendez filed to run as an independent candidate last month.

That campaign faced slim odds of success against Kim even before Tuesday’s verdict. The jury’s decision isn’t likely to help Menendez’s electoral prospects.

Kim will face Republican nominee Curtis Bashaw in the November general election. Both on Tuesday reiterated calls for Menendez to step down from his seat and drop out of the race.

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Nadine Menendez was charged last year in the same indictment as her husband and his codefendants and was initially scheduled to stand trial alongside them. But Stein, the judge, separated her case from the others while she underwent treatment for breast cancer.

She had been scheduled to stand trial later this month. But Stein, on Tuesday, indefinitely delayed those proceedings.

As he left the courthouse Tuesday, the senator and his lawyers vowed an appeal was coming.

Even before the verdict, Menendez hired Yaakov M. Roth, a lawyer who specializes in criminal appeals and who has been part of legal teams that persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out corruption charges against former Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and two aides of ex-New Jersey Gov. Christopher J. Christie, who were convicted as part of the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal.