A jury has found Nadine Menéndez guilty in his federal bribery trial, after her husband’s conviction, former New Jersey senator, Bob Menéndez, in similar crimes.
The prosecutors argued that the two were “partners in the crime” while accused of accepting cash, gold bars and a luxury car in exchange for political favors.
The defense argued that there was no evidence that Nadine Menéndez was involved in the scheme that her husband was convicted of perpetrating.
The jurors began to deliberate Friday afternoon before reaching their verdict on Monday afternoon.
She will be sentenced in June, the same month that her husband must inform the prison to start serving an 11 -year sentence.
Nadine Menéndez, wife of former American senator Robert Menéndez arrives at the Federal Court, for his bribery trial in New York, on March 20, 2025.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
He declared himself innocent of 15 positions, including the conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit an honest fraud of services and conspiracy to commit an extortion under the color of the official law. Several of the charges have a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Bob Menéndez was sentenced to 11 years in prison in January after being convicted of the 16 charges last year in his federal corruption trial, becoming the first member of the Congress to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent.
A jury found him guilty of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold, effective, a luxury convert, payments towards Nadine Menéndez’s housing mortgage and compensation for his work without exhibition, of three New Jersey businessmen, who have also been convicted.
“Nadine Menéndez and Senator Menéndez were partners in the crime,” said US fiscal prosecutor Matthew Podolsky in a statement after the verdict in the scheme of corruption and foreign influence. “In the field of five years, Nadine Menéndez agreed to accept and accept all kinds of bribes, including gold bars, cash, a convertible Mercedes-Benz and a non-presentation work, all in exchange for the official official acts of the senator. Together, Nadine Menéndez and the senator placed their own interests and the degree ahead of the interests of the citizens that the senator was chosen those who attend “”. “
“Today’s verdict sends the clear message that the power of government officials cannot be put up for sale, and that all those who facilitate corruption will be responsible for their actions,” he added.
The FBI said he found $ 70,000 in cash in the Nadine Menéndez security box and the rest within the jackets of Congress with the name of Bob Menéndez.
Shortly after the two began to leave in 2018, Nadine Menéndez introduced the Egyptian intelligence and military officers in the then Sen. Bob Menéndez, according to federal prosecutors, who claimed these presentations helped establish a corrupt agreement in which they accepted bribes in exchange for her husband’s actions to benefit Egypt.
Senator Bob Menéndez, a New Jersey Democrat, and his wife Nadine Arslanian, arrive at the United States District Court, South District of New York, in New York City on September 27, 2023.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP through Getty Images
Witnesses at the trial included José Uribe, a New Jersey businessman who declared himself guilty last year and testified by the government. Prosecutors said Uribe paid for the Mercedes-Benz Convertible of Menéndez of $ 60,000 in exchange for helping to interrupt a criminal investigation by the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General related to Uribe.
Nadine Menéndez was supposed to be judged with her husband, but the judge allowed her to be tried separately to accommodate her diagnosis of breast cancer. Her trial was postponed several times while she underwent treatment.
The trial itself was also suspended for several days because it was sick.
On March 17, on the eve of the jury selection at the trial of Nadine Menéndez, the former senator Posted in x that his wife was being “forced by the government to go to trial” despite undergoing a recent reconstructive surgery for breast cancer.
“Only the arrogance of the SDNY can be so cruel and inhuman,” said Bob Menéndez in the post, which labeled President Donald Trump. “They should let her recover completely.”
After his sentence, Bob Menéndez called the Prosecutor’s Office a “political witch hunt” and expects Trump to “clean the Cess well and restore the integrity of the system.”
When issuing the sentence of Bob Menéndez, Judge Sidney Stein said that the former senator would not have to inform the prison until June 6 to be available during his wife’s trial.
