After a three-month trial in which attorneys for then-New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez said it was his wife, Nadine, who was to blame for the cash and gold found in their Englewood Cliffs home, Menendez appears to be having a change of heart.
In a letter to Judge Sidney Stein ahead of Nadine’s Sept. 11 sentencing, Bob Menendez wrote that he regrets that she was painted as money hungry during his trial.
“I regret that I didn’t fully preview what my Defense Attorney said about Nadine during my trial and in his summation. To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong,” he wrote.
Menendez added that Nadine actually had money of her own from a divorce, and that any discussions about mortgage or car payments that were referred to in the trial were the result of fears of a lawsuit following a fatal car accident she was involved in in 2018.
Menendez, 71, who resigned from the Senate after his 2024 conviction, wrote his letter from federal prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania, stating that his wife of five years has been punished enough and has lost everything she cared about.
“Your Honor, you gave me a tough sentence that surely serves the deterrent value you said was needed. To imprison Nadine, would not recognize the trauma she has suffered, how it has affected her and her judgment, and I would respectfully say would not have any greater deterrent effect,” he wrote.
Nadine’s attorneys voiced a similar sentiment in their 25-page letter to the judge. The letter detailed the hardships she’s encountered throughout her life, writing: “Nadine is not her husband, or her co-defendants. Despite all of the Government’s efforts to present her as a vixen, the reality is far from that. She is a deeply traumatized woman.” They added that “her entire life has been marked by men who have taken advantage of her, and harmed her, in myriad ways.”
Her attorneys are requesting 12 months and 1 day of imprisonment when she is sentenced next month.
“This entire case has been an exercise in deterrence. There is no need for additional specific deterrence," her lawyers wrote. "In her late 50s, Nadine is a first-time offender with no risk of re-offending. Nadine’s entire life has already been destroyed — her husband is serving an 11-year sentence, she is a social pariah, and she cannot step outside of her home or go to the grocery store without attracting attention."
Bob Menendez was found guilty of taking part in a bribery scheme that rewarded him and his wife with hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars and stacks of cash.
He was convicted of extortion, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent.
In April, Nadine was convicted of the same corruption charges.
Her trial was separate from her husband’s and two other New Jersey businessmen, so she could undergo treatment for breast cancer.
Several medical professionals also wrote letters on Nadine’s behalf. A former Bureau of Prisons physician wrote that Nadine would not be able to get the medical attention needed for her breast cancer treatments and that home confinement would be the better option.
