NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s spouse informed 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 automotive.
U.S. District Decide Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, after she was convicted in April of colluding from 2018 to 2023 together 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 palms and he strung my like a puppet,” she mentioned. “The blindfold is off. I now know he’s not my savior. He’s not the person I believed he was.”
Stein informed the defendant that she wasn’t the individual she was portrayed as throughout final 12 months’s trial of her husband and two New Jersey businessmen, when the decide mentioned she was painted as “as manipulative, hungry for cash and the true pressure behind the conspiracies.”
However he mentioned she additionally wasn’t the “harmless observer of what was taking place round you,” as she was portrayed by her lawyer at her trial.
“You knew what you have been doing. Your function was purposeful,” he mentioned.
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 wished, resembling calling or assembly with sure folks.
“I’d by no means have imagined somebody of his rating placing me on this place,” she mentioned, 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 absolutely preview what his lawyer mentioned about his spouse throughout his trial and in closing arguments.
“To recommend that Nadine was cash hungry or in monetary want, and subsequently would solicit others for assist, is solely incorrect,” he wrote.
Along with jail time, Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez to 3 years of supervised launch. He mentioned he granted her leniency partly due to the trial she endured, her tough childhood in Lebanon, her abusive romantic companions, her well being circumstances and her age.
Stein mentioned a jail time period was essential for common deterrence functions: “Individuals have to know there are penalties.”
Nadine Menendez received’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 essential medical procedures earlier than she heads behind bars. Federal prosecutors didn’t object to the request.
Prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of a minimum of seven years.
Her lawyer, Sarah Krissoff, requested that she serve solely a 12 months behind bars, citing her tough restoration from breast most cancers, which was recognized simply previous to final 12 months’s trial, when she was to be tried alongside together with her husband. She ended up being tried individually.
Bob Menendez, 71, is serving an 11-year sentence after his conviction on fees of taking bribes, extortion, and performing as an agent of the Egyptian authorities.
Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez performed a big and essential function 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 1000’s 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 value an estimated $150,000 and a luxurious convertible within the storage.
Prosecutors mentioned 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, one in every of whom had enterprise dealings with the Egyptian authorities.
