NEW YORK — Opening statements are scheduled Monday in the bribery trial of Nadine Menendez, whose prison-bound husband, former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, complained she was being treated unfairly by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
Nadine Menendez, 58, was originally scheduled to go to trial last year along with the 71-year-old New Jersey Democrat, but a breast cancer diagnosis and surgery led to a delay in her case. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that she participated in the bribery scheme resulting in her husband’s conviction.
“My wife, who had breast cancer reconstructive surgery just days ago, is being forced by the government to go to trial tomorrow,” Bob Menendez said last week on the social platform X before jury selection took place.
“Only the arrogance of the SDNY can be so cruel and inhumane,” Menendez added, referring to the Southern District of New York, where her trial is taking place. “They should let her fully recover!”
The former senator was sentenced in late January to 11 years in prison after being convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen. Prosecutors said that was in return for a variety of favors, including using his influence to help some of them in their dealings with foreign governments, and he was also convicted of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.
Menendez resigned his Senate seat after his conviction. A judge delayed the start of his prison term until June 6 so he could attend his wife’s trial.
Throughout his two-month trial, Nadine Menendez was mentioned repeatedly for her dealings with the businessmen. One of them testified he bought her a luxury car after the senator tried to get New Jersey prosecutors to drop a criminal investigation involving one of his associates.
In 2022, FBI agents raided the couple’s home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and found over $100,000 in gold bars and more than $480,000 cash stuffed in envelopes, shoeboxes, jackets and boots.
Bob Menendez said at trial that the gold belonged to his wife and the cash resulted from his habit of hoarding money after his parents fled Cuba in 1951 with only what they had hidden in a grandfather clock.
Menendez, who beat another corruption prosecution a decade ago, has aligned himself with Donald Trump’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City, and tagged the president in his March 17 complaint on X.
“This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core,” he told reporters after his sentencing. “I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.”
