Nadine Menendez, the wife of former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his international corruption racket, has been convicted of involvement in the corruption scheme. Nadine, who prosecutors referred to as the Senator’s “pattern in crime,” was deeply involved in a scheme that involved trading insider access to foreign governors for gold bars, expensive watches, and a convertible.
For context, the disgraced Democrat Senator tried to throw his wife under the bus and blame her for the corruption scandal, particularly the foreign bribes aspect of it. While the move was unsuccessful in saving Menedez from prison time, it did ensure that Nadine would face her own trial, which led to her conviction.
As The American Tribune previously reported, “At trial, as part of his defense, Senator Menendez may elect to testify to communications with his wife that serve to materially decrease any inference of culpability on Senator Menendez’s part. Senator Menendez will explain, for example, what he and his wife discussed contemporaneously with their dinners with Egyptian officials (which colored his understanding of the purpose of such dinners).”
Building on this point, prosecutors said, “the explanations that Nadine provided for why [co-defendants Wael Hanna and Jose Uribe] had provided her certain monetary items; the reasons why he sent his wife a series of questions that other Senators purportedly intended to ask an Egyptian official; and many more topics.”
In any case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni blasted Nadine Menedez for her corruption. He said, “The senator was the one whose power was up for sale. The defendant was his go between, demanding payment … always keeping him informed.” He also explained how the sanator’s “partner in crime,” googled the price of gold shortly after receiving the bars, which he said was “not a coincidence. It’s a bribe.”
Complicating proceedings, Nadine’s trial was delayed for years as she battled a series of significant health concerns. After his conviction, Bob Menendez took to Twitter on April 5 to complain about the trial. He said, “This is the second time in one week that my wife Nadine’s trial had to be postponed because of her physical pain and illness. As I said previously, the Prosecution should have never rushed her to trial after her breast cancer operations. This is not Justice!”
Unsurprisingly, the comments were not kind to the corrupt senator, and many took the opportunity to mock him for his dishonest behavior. One such comment said, “Tough cookies. She took the gold, cars & money & her health had nothing to do with it. Tell her to make a deal & plead guilty. Simple solution. But stop acting as if the prosecution is at fault.”
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Reacting to his previous strategy of trying to blame his wife for the entire scandal, conservatives pounced on Bob Menendez. A reply read, “Democrats will pin his crimes to the wife, so they can retain power. Yeah, they’re all about “women’s rights.'” Another user chimed in, “Imagine a man making his wife take the fall.. disgraceful, but we already knew the type of people that govern us.”
Watch Sen. Menedez turn himself in here:
Rounding out the comments, one reply noted the New Jersey Democrat’s long history of corruption saying, “This is not Bobby’s 1st Bribery Scandal He had a dead locked jury in 2017 for a different bribery scandal The DOJ dropped the case & the Senate ALLOWED him to be remain the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.”
Featured image from embedded video