Last month, the wife of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez had her request to delay her trial for the second time denied. In early January, Manhattan federal Judge Sidney Stein on Friday denied Nadine Menendez’s request for her February 5 trial to be pushed back by several months.
At the time, Menendez’s lawyers had argued the trial date was too close to her husband’s sentencing and should be rescheduled to a later date. Attorneys claimed that Bob Menendez’s sentencing on January 29 could interfere with his wife’s trial given the intense media coverage that could theoretically influence jurors in her case.
However, Judge Stein refused to honor this request. However, Menendez’s trial was later delayed as she continues to receive treatment for breast cancer. She is now scheduled to go on trial on March 18 in Manhattan Federal Court. Bob, 71, and Nadine, 58, were charged with accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which included gold, cash, and vehicles.
In late January, ex-Sen. Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery, foreign agent, and obstruction offenses. The American Tribune reported that the New Jersey Democrat received gold bars in exchange for political favors in Egypt and for other New Jersey businessmen. The former congressman’s conviction marks the first time a former senator has been convicted of acting as a foreign agent.
U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon said about the sentencing, “The sentences imposed today result from an egregious abuse of power at the highest levels of the Legislative Branch of the federal government. Robert Menendez was trusted to represent the United States and the State of New Jersey, but instead he used his position to help his co-conspirators and a foreign government, in exchange for bribes like cash, gold, and a luxury car.”
Sassoon maintained that Menendez being held accountable for his conduct should send a strong message to officials across all levels of government will be held accountable for such offenses. “The sentences imposed today send a clear message that attempts at any level of government to corrupt the nation’s foreign policy and the rule of law will be met with just punishment,” she added.
Following his sentencing, Menendez denied wrongdoing and maintained that he was innocent. “Welcome to the southern district of New York, the wild west of political prosecutions,” he said. “President Trump is right: this process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool, and restores the integrity to the system,” he added, seemingly calling on Trump to help in.
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U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York described the case against Bob and Nadine, writing, “MENENDEZ, at the time the Indictment was unsealed, was the senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (“SFRC”). Shortly after MENENDEZ began dating his now-wife Nadine Menendez, then known as Nadine Arslanian (“Nadine Menendez”), in 2018, Nadine introduced MENENDEZ to her long-time friend HANA, who is originally from Egypt. HANA lived in New Jersey, and maintained close connections with Egyptian officials. HANA was also a business associate of DAIBES, a New Jersey real estate developer and long-time donor to MENENDEZ, and Jose Uribe, who worked in the New Jersey insurance and trucking business.”
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Featured image credit: Senator Bob Menendez, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Menendez_(35532050726).jpg