Jury choice is scheduled to start Tuesday within the federal bribery trial of Nadine Menendez, lower than two months after her husband, former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was sentenced to 11 years in jail for related crimes.
A jury convicted Bob Menendez of accepting a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} value of bribes — together with gold, money, a luxurious convertible, funds towards Nadine Menendez’s house mortgage and compensation for her no-show job — from three New Jersey businessmen, who’ve additionally been convicted.
Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and his spouse Nadine Arslanian, arrive on the US District Court docket, Southern District of New York, in New York Metropolis, Sept. 27, 2023.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP through Getty Pictures
The FBI stated it discovered $70,000 in money in Nadine Menendez’s protected deposit field and the remainder inside congressional jackets bearing Bob Menendez’s identify.
Shortly after the 2 started courting in 2018, Nadine Menendez launched Egyptian intelligence and navy officers to then-Sen. Bob Menendez, in accordance with federal prosecutors, who alleged these introductions helped set up a corrupt settlement by which they accepted bribes in alternate for her husband’s actions to profit Egypt.
On the eve of jury choice, the previous senator posted on X that his spouse is being “compelled by the federal government to go to trial tomorrow” regardless of having current reconstructive surgical procedure for breast most cancers.
“Solely the vanity of the SDNY will be so merciless and inhumane,” Bob Menendez stated within the X submit, which tagged President Donald Trump.
Former Sen. Bob Menendez departs Manhattan Federal Court docket after his sentencing, Jan. 29, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
Nadine Menendez was supposed to face trial alongside her husband, however the choose allowed her to face trial individually to accommodate her breast most cancers analysis. Her trial has been postponed a number of instances whereas she underwent therapy.
She is charged with one rely of conspiracy to commit bribery, which carries a most sentence of 5 years in jail; one rely of conspiracy to commit sincere providers fraud, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail; and one rely of conspiracy to commit extortion below shade of official proper, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail.
She has pleaded not responsible to all costs.
In January, Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in jail after being convicted on all 16 counts final 12 months in his federal corruption trial, changing into the primary sitting member of Congress to be convicted of appearing as a overseas agent.
Following his sentencing, Bob Menendez known as the prosecution a “political witch hunt” and that he hopes Trump “cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
In issuing the sentence, Choose Sidney Stein stated the previous senator won’t need to report back to jail till June 6 in order that he will be accessible when his spouse goes on trial.
