The wife of disgraced former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez broke down in tears in court Thursday as she told a judge her husband was "not the man I thought he was" before being sentenced to 4½ years in prison for accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car in exchange for selling the New Jersey politician's influence.
U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, for her April conviction for colluding from 2018 to 2023 with her husband, the former Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a variety of corrupt schemes, some involving assisting the Egyptian government.
Nadine Menendez, tearfully addressing the judge for several minutes before he sentenced her, described her husband as a manipulative liar.
"I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet," she said. "The blindfold is off. I now know he’s not my savior. He’s not the man I thought he was."
Standing outside the courthouse afterward, she said she doesn't plan to divorce her 71-year-old husband, who is serving an 11-year sentence for taking bribes, extortion, and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.
Stein told the defendant that she wasn't the person she was portrayed as during last year's trial of her husband and two New Jersey businessmen, when the judge said she was painted as "the true force behind the conspiracies."
But he said she also wasn't the "innocent observer of what was happening around you," as her lawyer claimed.
"You knew what you were doing. Your role was purposeful," he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said Nadine Mendendez was "the second-most culpable member" of the scheme, after her husband, and that she "did so without hesitation."
"The defendant was not a bit player," the prosecutor said. "She played a critical role in selling the power of a U.S. senator."
When she spoke, Nadine Menendez partly blamed her husband, saying she was duped by his power and stature and that she felt compelled to do whatever he wanted, such as calling or meeting with certain people.
"I would never have imagined someone of his ranking putting me in this position," she said, though she acknowledged that in retrospect, she was a grown woman and should have known better.
Prior to the hearing, Bob Menendez submitted a letter to the judge saying he regretted that he didn't fully preview what his lawyer said about his wife during his trial and in the closing arguments.
"To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong," he wrote.
In addition to prison time, Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez to three years of supervised release. He said he granted her leniency in part because of the trial she endured, her difficult childhood in Lebanon, her abusive romantic partners, her health conditions and her age.
Stein said a prison term was important for general deterrence purposes: "People have to understand there are consequences."
Nadine Menendez won't have to surrender to prison until next summer. Stein set a reporting date of July 10, accommodating a defense request that she be allowed to remain free to complete necessary medical procedures before she heads behind bars. Federal prosecutors did not object to the request.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of at least seven years.
Her lawyer, Sarah Krissoff, asked that her client serve only a year behind bars, citing longstanding trauma, past abusive relationships, a brain injury and her difficult recovery from breast cancer. That diagnosis came just prior to last year's trial, when she was to be tried along with her husband. She ended up being tried separately.
"People with brain injuries don’t just happen to engage in yearslong white-collar crimes. They choose to do so," Pomerantz shot back. "Her choices are what caused that conduct."
After the sentencing, Krissoff said her client plans to appeal.
Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez played a large and crucial role in her husband's crimes, serving as an intermediary between the senator and three New Jersey businessmen who literally lined his coat pockets with tens of thousands of dollars in cash in return for favors he could deliver with his political clout.
During a 2022 FBI raid on the couple's New Jersey home, investigators found $480,000 in cash, gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
Prosecutors said that, among his other corrupt acts, the senator met with Egyptian intelligence officials and sped up that country's access to U.S. military aid as part of a complex effort to help his bribe-paying associates, one of whom had business dealings with the Egyptian government.
