Tomorrow, a federal judge will sentence Nadine Menendez, the wife of imprisoned former Senator Bob Menendez, for corruption charges for which she was found guilty in April.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein, the same judge who sentenced Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison, faces dueling requests. Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Nadine Menendez to eight years in prison; Nadine Menendez and her attorneys asked for a sentence of one year and one day, citing her youth in war-torn Lebanon and her breast cancer diagnosis.
The two Menendezes, alongside a trio of North Jersey businessmen, were charged in 2023 with a wide-ranging corruption scheme involving cash bribes and gifts in exchange for influence in Washington. Nadine Menendez was charged with facilitating connections between her husband and his bribers, and she benefited financially from the transactions, most infamously a Mercedes-Benz.
In a letter to the judge, her lawyers said a lengthy sentence would “obliterate” any opportunity to properly treat her breast cancer. Prosecutors told the judge they would not oppose a delayed surrender date to allow her to undergo recommended treatment and surgeries, according to the New York Times.
