Nadine Menendez sentenced to 54 months in bribery case

On Thursday in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, to 54 months in prison and three years of supervised release for her role in a bribery and foreign-influence scheme that prosecutors say traded the senator's political clout for cash, gold bars and a luxury car. The sentence, imposed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, came after her April conviction on corruption charges.

Prosecutors portrayed Nadine Menendez as a central intermediary who connected her husband with three New Jersey businessmen who funneled bribes to the couple in exchange for political favors. Evidence introduced at trial included a 2022 FBI search of the couple's Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home that uncovered about $480,000 in cash, gold bars estimated at $150,000 and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. Prosecutors had sought a prison term of at least seven years and the Probation Department recommended eight years, while defense lawyers urged a sentence of about one year, citing her life of charitable work and recent health problems.

At sentencing, Nadine Menendez wept and blamed her...