NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s spouse advised a decide that her husband was “not the person I believed he was” earlier than she was sentenced Thursday to 4½ years in jail for promoting the highly effective New Jersey politician’s affect in trade for bribes of money, gold bars and a luxurious automobile.
U.S. District Decide Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, after she was convicted in April of colluding from 2018 to 2023 along with her husband, the previous Democratic chairman of the Senate International Relations Committee, in quite a lot of corrupt schemes, some involving helping the Egyptian authorities.
Sobbing as she addressed the decide shortly earlier than she was sentenced, Nadine Menendez described her husband as a manipulative liar.
“I put my life in his fingers and he strung my like a puppet,” she stated. “The blindfold is off. I now know he’s not my savior. He’s not the person I believed he was.”
Stein advised the defendant that she wasn’t the individual she was portrayed as throughout final yr’s trial of her husband and two New Jersey businessmen, when the decide stated she was painted as “as manipulative, hungry for cash and the true power behind the conspiracies.”
However he stated she additionally wasn’t the “harmless observer of what was occurring round you,” as she was portrayed by her lawyer at her trial.
“You knew what you have been doing. Your position was purposeful,” he stated.
When she spoke, Nadine Menendez partly blamed her husband, saying she was duped by his energy and stature and that she felt compelled to do no matter he needed, similar to calling or assembly with sure folks.
“I’d by no means have imagined somebody of his rating placing me on this place,” she stated, although she acknowledged that on reflection, she was a grown girl and may have recognized higher.
Previous to the listening to, Bob Menendez submitted a letter to the decide saying he regretted that he didn’t totally preview what his lawyer stated about his spouse throughout his trial and in closing arguments.
“To recommend that Nadine was cash hungry or in monetary want, and due to this fact would solicit others for assist, is solely incorrect,” he wrote.
Along with jail time, Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez to a few years of supervised launch. He stated he granted her leniency partially due to the trial she endured, her tough childhood in Lebanon, her abusive romantic companions, her well being situations and her age.
Stein stated a jail time period was necessary for basic deterrence functions: “Individuals have to know there are penalties.”
Nadine Menendez gained’t should give up to jail till subsequent summer season. Stein set a reporting date of July 10, accommodating a protection request that she be allowed to stay free to finish vital medical procedures earlier than she heads behind bars. Federal prosecutors didn’t object to the request.
Prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of not less than seven years.
Her lawyer, Sarah Krissoff, requested that she serve solely a yr behind bars, citing her tough restoration from breast most cancers, which was identified simply previous to final yr’s trial, when she was to be tried alongside along with her husband. She ended up being tried individually.
Bob Menendez, 71, is serving an 11-year sentence after his conviction on prices of taking bribes, extortion, and performing as an agent of the Egyptian authorities.
Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez performed a big and essential position in her husband’s crimes, serving as an middleman between the senator and three New Jersey businessmen who actually lined his coat pockets with tens of hundreds of {dollars} in money in return for favors he may ship together with his political clout.
Throughout a 2022 FBI raid on the couple’s New Jersey home, investigators discovered $480,000 in money, gold bars price an estimated $150,000 and a luxurious convertible within the storage.
Prosecutors stated that, amongst his different corrupt acts, the senator met with Egyptian intelligence officers and speeded that nation’s entry to U.S. army assist as a part of a fancy effort to assist his bribe-paying associates, certainly one of whom had enterprise dealings with the Egyptian authorities.
