The top senator overseeing U.S. policy in the Middle East called for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) to resign in light of a federal indictment on bribery charges that included influencing the government of Egypt.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Middle East said an inquiry needs to be launched into Egypt’s behavior toward the committee.

“I think Senator Menendez needs to resign. It’s the best, best pass path forward for the Senate,” he told The Hill on Tuesday.

“It’s a devastating series of allegations and as a committee, we now have a responsibility to understand what Egypt was doing and what Egypt thought it was getting. There are serious implications for U.S. policy towards Egypt. If, as the indictment suggests, they [Egypt] were trying to use illicit means to curry favor on the committee,” he added. 

Murphy further called for the Foreign Relations committee to exercise a hold to block the Biden administration from providing $235 million in military assistance to Egypt, a move that the administration and supporters view as important to protect U.S. national security interests. 

Opponents say the security assistance should be withheld over concerns about Egypt’s human rights record. 

“So the administration has provided a waiver on $235 million to Egypt. I would hope that our committee will consider using any ability it has to put a pause on those dollars pending an inquiry into what Egypt was doing,” he said, but did not comment on what body should carry out an investigation. 

“I have not talked to colleagues about this yet. But obviously this raises pretty serious questions about Egypt’s conduct,” he added.